[10124] daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jayne levin) Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet 02/08/94 11:51 (91 lines) Subject: Internet Letter story on Encyclopedia B. Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 11:47:34 -0500 (EST) From: jayne levin To: com-priv Some of you suggested I include The Internet Letter story on Encyclopedia Britannica going on-line, so here it is. jayne Jayne Levin Net Week Inc. Editor 220 National Press Building The Internet Letter Washington, D.C. 20045 USA +1 202 638 6020 Fax: +1 202 638 6019 T H E I N T E R N E T L E T T E R On Corporate Users, Internetworking and Information Services ======================================================================== Vol. 1, No. 4 A Net Week Inc. Publication Jan. 1, 1994 (c) 1994 004) Encyclopedia Britannica to Go On-line in '94 It's 225 years old, conservative and reliable. And in 1994 the Encyclopedia Britannica is going on-line. Although no formal announcement is expected until spring, current plans call for an electronic version of the encyclopedia to be available in the fall on a subscription basis to colleges and universities, where it can be accessed by Internet users. The digital encyclopedia is going into beta testing at the University of California at San Diego this month, said Joseph Esposito, president of Encyclopedia Britannica of North America. "It's going to take a little bit of time before it's all done, which is why we've given ourselves plenty of lead time," he said. The on-line version will be text only--about 44 million words--and will not include the 23,000 illustrations found in the printed version of the Encyclopedia Britannica (EB). The encyclopedia has been in digital form for 20 years for the company's internal use, but the new plans mark the first time the full reference work will be available to outsiders via computer. The company has "no plans for distribution beyond the academic community at this time," Esposito said. As for access by individual Internet users, Esposito said, "Our research suggests that a very large proportion of Internet users do in fact have university affiliations, so I'm not sure if this is a major roadblock [for individuals]." The company is taking great care to ensure that both print and digital versions of the encyclopedia will be available to regular customers. "We're making available to the people who buy print sets of Encyclopedia Britannica coupons that allow them to buy deeply discounted versions of any electronic EB when such a product is on the market. So we're being very careful to protect our customers, and nobody is going to feel that they were surprised by an electronic product," Esposito said. But will there always be a print version of the encyclopedia as well as an electronic version? This, said Esposito, is "the billion dollar question." "My own view is that the answer to that is yes," he said. "I'm inclined to believe that print is going to outlive myself, and perhaps outlive my children as well. Part of the reason is that there's simply things we can do with the print medium that we cannot do with the digital media. And there's also things that we can do with the digital media that we cannot do with print. It works both ways." The book version, for example, "lends itself to long, discursive articles, of which the encyclopedia has quite a few," he said. "For looking up bits of information, the electronic version is superior. For reading discursive essays, the print version is superior." Consumers, however, will dictate which medium will be available for the encyclopedia, Esposito said. "It's a question of letting the medium find its own way," he said. "So I think we're going to have the print for some time to come. Having said that, we're not going to make that decision. We're going to let the marketplace make that decision for us." The academic community, meanwhile, is eagerly awaiting the electronic version of the encyclopedia. "We have been approached now by so many schools for this property, we are just amazed," Esposito said. "And the number of schools that want to serve as beta-test sites is astonishing...We have been amazed at the pent-up demand for an on-line version of EB. It's obviously something we're quite grateful to see, and we hope that we will be able to get the product just right and that people will be satisfied with it." Unlike many book publishers, Encyclopedia Britannica does not plan to license its database. "We've decided that we will do our own internal software development and be, in effect, an electronic publisher," Esposito said. --Robert Shepard --[10124]-- [10127] daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes) Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet 02/08/94 14:32 (66 lines) Subject: Re: Internet Letter story on Encyclopedia B. From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes) To: helen@access.digex.net (jayne levin) Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 12:13:04 -0700 (MST) Cc: com-priv@psi.com (compriv) In-Reply-To: from "jayne levin" at Feb 8, 94 11:47:34 am > Jayne Levin reports: 004) Encyclopedia Britannica to Go On-line in '94 > The company has "no plans for distribution beyond the academic >community at this time," Esposito said. As for access by individual >Internet users, Esposito said, "Our research suggests that a very large >proportion of Internet users do in fact have university affiliations, so >I'm not sure if this is a major roadblock [for individuals]." Boy, is Esposito out to lunch on this one. The inability of individuals NOT affiliated with 'universities' being unable to access the online EB is a short sighted, stupid decision which just angers me in its myopia, or hidden 'other' economic agenda, whichever. Is Esposito dissembling on that observation, or does he really believe it? *MY* research (15 years online NONE of which has been as part of a formal academic institution) indicates that EVERYONE in the US is going to become a life-long 'learner, teacher' using personal digital and communications tools in which their 'institutional' educational affiliation, K-12 or college level, will be but periodic episodes. I didn't know the Encyclopedia Britannica sees itself as 'only' an academic reference book, or that 'only' academicians are going to use the Internet. Already for cripes sake, the *proportion* of academics - students, teachers, researchers - relative to the non-academic public is *declining* on the Internet. Its not even 50% now, is it? So he goes into a long song and dance as to whether 'print' will survive. Sure it will. But hell, the REAL question he ought to be asking himself, is whether formal schools, colleges and universities will survive! Given the escalating cost to taxpayers for the 'public' ones, their ever more questionable ability to educate people better than people can educate themselves using the new digital tools, and ability to communicate informally, with the brightest minds and experts on the planet, it is those Costly Castles of Learning that I would not want to bet my company's future on. So I will continue to use Grolier's Online Enclyopaedia accessible by anyone locally in Colorado Springs by dial up modem or walking into a public library, or anyone on the Internet through the Carl System, *provided* they have a Penrose Public Library Card (whose number they must enter to gain access to the encylcopaedia - which insures that those who pay the Library's taxes, which pay Grolier use fees, are the public beneficiaries of the 'free' access. I would prefer Britannica, but no way will I go get phonily 'affiliated' with the University of Colorado just to have access to EB, NOR will I buy my THIRD set of books from EB in paper or CD form, just so I can look something up maybe once a month for the years until it is obsolete again. Jane, did *any* of this get discussed with Esposito when you did your story? And does he have an Internet e-mail address, or is THAT the problem? Dave Hughes --[10127]-- [10128] daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (BRP Publications) Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet 02/08/94 14:35 (47 lines) Subject: Re: NY Times story Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 14:08:03 -0500 (EST) From: BRP Publications To: Christopher Locke Cc: com-priv@psi.com In-Reply-To: <199402081449.AA07289@panix.com> On Tue, 8 Feb 1994, Christopher Locke wrote: > John quoted my own elliptical slur on the non-Internet players > as: "Companies in the electronic publishing market are > beginning to see they want the largest possible market... They > don't want to be trapped in markets that are Balkanized or > private." > > But it gets much better. Toward the end of the piece, EB > president Joseph Esposito says: "If you do believe that content > is king, it's rather unfortunate that so many of the content > providers have put themselves in a position where they're held > hostage to the online services." > > The final graph quotes Larry Smarr, director of NCSA, saying: > "We're creating a new market for content providers... Here is a > whole world of people who are using cyberspace as their > information stream. They are all potential customers for > commercial information providers." Given NCSA's development of > Mosaic -- which is mentioned in the story along with WAIS, as > tools EB will use for delivery -- it's plain he's not referring > to the AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy constituencies. > > Kudos, once again, to Markoff and the NY Times for elevating an > important trend -- to publishing on the Internet -- into high > visibility within mainstream business circles. > Highly ironic, too, considering that the NYT is the only content provider I know of that balkanized itself out of the market. Mead Data Central owns the exclusive electronic repro rights to the NYT IN PERPETUITY. That's why it can only appear for 24 hours on the Dow Jones service. The other content providers that are going with the commercial online services have not signed exclusive licenses with anyone--for instance, Ziff Davis holds electronic publishing rights to almost 2,000 publications, but not a single one of those is an exclusive license. Nate Zelnick, Associate Editor, Information and Interactive Services Report --[10128]--