Wikipedia vs Encyclopaedia Brittannica

Wikipedia vs Encyclopaedia Brittannica


1. What is a brief history of the encyclopedia?
The encyclopaedia as we recognize it today was developed from the Dictionary in the 18th century.
Encyclopaedia Britannica is the oldest and one of the largest contemporary English encyclopedias. It found in 1768.


2. What are some key features of that encyclopedia
a) according to Wikipedia (established on 2001)
-E-book
-non-profitable
-13 million articles (3 million in English)
-articles are written collaboratively by volunteers around the world
-available languages: 271 in total

b) according to Encyclopedia Brittannica (published in 1768)
-language: English
-aimed at educated adult readers
-written by a staff of about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert contributors
-printout but also have online version


3. Which encyclopedia was most useful for this research?
Wikipedia, because the information is more updated than Encyclopedia Brittannica, and it is free of charge.

4. Can you trust this encyclopedia 100%? Why or why not?
I think I can't trust wikipedia totally. Although it provides lots of information, we can't prove those data are reliable because it wrote by anonymous, and the data can be change by vandals. Sometimes, the context of controversial subjects (e.g. political topics) ruin or change by vandals.

Source from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia - Wikipedia (accessed Sept 23.2009)