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5 Questions for Encyclopaedia Britannica
In response to the new WebShare initiative which is offering free access to the complete online Encyclopaedia Britannica to bloggers and Web publishers, I had a chance to ask Jorge Cauz, President of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a few questions about the program.
Ellyssa: The WebShare initiative comes fast on the heels of Wikipedia’s 10 millionth entry, was this new program a response to the growing popularity of the free online encyclopedia?
Jorge Cauz: No, we’ve been in business for almost two and one half centuries and have been publishing on the Web for almost 15 years. We develop new plans, products, and features based on what our customers want, our judgments about where they are headed, what technology is available, and what makes sense for us to fulfill our mission, which is to be the preferred resource for people seeking and sharing learning, knowledge and understanding. Britannica does best when people are engaged with our work and use it in discussions on issues that concern them. Today, the people who are publishing on the Web are helping to shape and drive those discussions as never before, and we want to see our products and valuable knowledge in their hands. It’s good business for us to do this, and it’s good for web publishers to have access to our products. That’s what the WebShare program is about.
Ellyssa: Why did Britannica make the decision to focus on “Web publishers” to receive free access?
Jorge Cauz: The Internet is increasingly the place where public discourse and discussion happens today, and the people who write and publish there are an important force in driving public conversations. Since Britannica has a great deal to offer in the way of context and background for these discussions, we want to make our work easily accessible to the people who can make good use of it in their own work and by doing so let the world know what kind of accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date information Britannica has.
Ellyssa: Does this include professional journalists and writers for major publications such as The New York Times, or just bloggers and citizen journalists?
Jorge Cauz: Yes, we’ve generally given free subscriptions to mainstream journalists who want them. That’s been true for some years.
Ellyssa: The Britannica WebShare program is offering quite a collection of widgets for blogs and websites offering non-account holders access to subject-focused encyclopedia articles, as well as a daily tweet from Twitter - are there any additional plans in the works to incorporate other social tools or emerging technologies?
Jorge Cauz: We do have a lot of plans already in the works, though nothing that we are ready to announce just yet. But please stay in touch with us or come visit us to our site(s) over the coming weeks and months. We’ll have plenty of innovative features!
Ellyssa: WebShare is opening up access to a lot of Britannica’s content, could this be a first step in making this a free resource, open to everyone, at some point in the future?
Jorge Cauz: No, we are not planning for that.
