Mailing List Archive

2008/12/23 Mathias Schindler <mathias.schindler@gmail.com>:
> On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:06 PM, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Britannica is notoriously antagonistic toward Wikipedia in its
>> advertising, but Brockhaus for instance isn't anywhere near as
>> obnoxious (they're not *fans* of Wikipedia, but they have more class
>> than to trash a perceived competitor the way Britannica try to). What
>> other important language encyclopedias of comparable renown are there?

> Well. The BIFAB AG (Bibliographic Institute & F. A. Brockhaus inc.)
> has announced last week ("happy x-mas") to sell the usage rights and
> brand name of "Brockhaus" to Bertelsmann (section Arvato, subsection
> inmedia one, business unit wissen media Group). The remaining staff of
> 60 editors of Brockhaus at Leipzig was not bought and will receive
> pink slips.
> Brockhaus might be transformed into an "imprint" of various content
> for door-2-door sales people.


Eek! What's happening to the content?


- d.

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On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:21 PM, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:

> Eek! What's happening to the content?
>

There are/were several ways to access the content of the actual core
Brockhaus encyclopedia:

1. Buy the book. 30 volumes, 2700€ - 3100€, depending on your payment
plan: http://www.brockhaus.de/enzyklopaedie/aufeinenblick/bestellen.php

2. Buy the "USB stick edition": 1500 €. no longer being sold.

3. Pay per view via munzinger.de
http://munzinger.de/search/query?f=query&qid=query-12

4. online subscription to brockhaus-enzyklopaedie.de. There was never
an end user license for this web site. end users had to buy 1. or 2.
(see above) to get access to this site until 31/12/2010.

5. Get the content (or a very similar kind encyclopedia) from
http://lexikon.meyers.de, which is the second encyclopedia brand name
at BIFAB AG. BIFAB has announced to shut down all encyclopedia related
activities and has said that the content at lexikon.meyers.de is
largely taken from Brockhaus substance so that they are unable to
continue this service. Hence we have to assume that lexikon.meyers.de
is going to be shut down in the next 39 days.

From an online perspective, it is unlikely to get any worse. The
poorly visible Brockhaus encyclopedia text might re-appear under
different brand names in other places. Or other content might appear
under a Brockhaus brand. All questions to save or use or release the
content from the Brockhaus encyclopedia would have to be directed to
Arvato/Wissen media group.

Mathias

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Do we know people at Arvato? SJ

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 6:06 PM, Mathias Schindler
<mathias.schindler@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 11:21 PM, David Gerard <dgerard@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Eek! What's happening to the content?
>>
>
> There are/were several ways to access the content of the actual core
> Brockhaus encyclopedia:
>
> 1. Buy the book. 30 volumes, 2700€ - 3100€, depending on your payment
> plan: http://www.brockhaus.de/enzyklopaedie/aufeinenblick/bestellen.php
>
> 2. Buy the "USB stick edition": 1500 €. no longer being sold.
>
> 3. Pay per view via munzinger.de
> http://munzinger.de/search/query?f=query&qid=query-12
>
> 4. online subscription to brockhaus-enzyklopaedie.de. There was never
> an end user license for this web site. end users had to buy 1. or 2.
> (see above) to get access to this site until 31/12/2010.
>
> 5. Get the content (or a very similar kind encyclopedia) from
> http://lexikon.meyers.de, which is the second encyclopedia brand name
> at BIFAB AG. BIFAB has announced to shut down all encyclopedia related
> activities and has said that the content at lexikon.meyers.de is
> largely taken from Brockhaus substance so that they are unable to
> continue this service. Hence we have to assume that lexikon.meyers.de
> is going to be shut down in the next 39 days.
>
> From an online perspective, it is unlikely to get any worse. The
> poorly visible Brockhaus encyclopedia text might re-appear under
> different brand names in other places. Or other content might appear
> under a Brockhaus brand. All questions to save or use or release the
> content from the Brockhaus encyclopedia would have to be directed to
> Arvato/Wissen media group.
>
> Mathias
>
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>

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On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 12:23 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do we know people at Arvato? SJ

Yes (more precisely: at Wissen Media and at InmediaOne] )

Mathias

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That's great. It might be valuable to share notes on collaborations
between old-school encyclopedic media groups and Wikipedians in
various countries. I see a few classes of collabs possible

* between traditional editing teams and Wikipedians. These teams,
including those being laid off by brockhaus, have tremendous
history/experience/tradecraft in how to organize workflows, track
sources, follow updates year by year to a topic, and find new experts
to provide overviews and novel writing. Generally these experts are
not paid much - IME that is not the core expense of maintaining even
traditional encyclos. Work together to find ways to help WP benefit
from these practices -- and find a new way for lifelong encyclopedists
to continue contributing to world knowledge even as their jobs change

* between chief editors and Wikipedian masses. Reassess the merit of
"the value of an encyclopedia is what it leaves out, not what it puts
in". what does that mean now for multimedia encyclos with multi-DVD
sets? What did it ever mean for mega-encyclos? How can we provide
high-quality top-level overviews while continuing to expand the
quantity & quality of detail? How to coordinate what are effectively
focused subject-specific encyclos and WP as a whole? how important
are the value judgements being made by each group producing a limited
edition for DVD / iPod / OLPC / print? what audiences don't find
their needs met yet?

* between content archivists and Wikimedia : freeing archives for
public use. There are a few degrees to this : access/reuse of
indexes, access/reuse of summaries//data templates//thumbnails,
access/reuse of full text & multimedia. This works in two ways -- WM
can be a world leader in providing accurate and high-visibility
attribution of its sources [.something the projects currently are poor
at - contribute text or media to WM and you get an almost negligible
mention].

SJ

On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 7:29 AM, Mathias Schindler
<mathias.schindler@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 12:23 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Do we know people at Arvato? SJ
>
> Yes (more precisely: at Wissen Media and at InmediaOne] )
>
> Mathias
>
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>
>

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