Wikipedia Planning a DVD Version

daria42 writes "The Wikipedia Foundation hopes to sell an English version of Wikipedia on CD-ROM and DVD before the end of the year. A boxed set of the German language version of Wikipedia has been available since last year. An updated version of the German Wikipedia was launched on Amazon.de this week, and the e-commerce site has received 8,000 pre-orders, according to Wikipedia Foundation president Jimmy Wales. Wales said it was easier to put the German version of Wikipedia onto CD as there are significantly less pages than there are for the English language version. He said that English Wikipedia would 'barely fit on 2 DVDs.'"

Comments

Whaaa?

[Zone-MR]

Last time I checked, the current version of the English wikipedia dump, is around 585MB. It should comfortably fit on one CD. Where did this figure of two DVDs come from?

I think I speak for all the nerds here...

[Phexro]

...when I say, "two single-layer DVDs, or dual-layer?"

Where is the Great Publishing House of Ursa Minor?

[AeonOfReason]

You know, Wikipedia is ripe for a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy treatment.

Put it in a little handheld, stick an Ipod hard drive in it, give it a usb port so it can grab updates, and presto.

As for Wiki itself, "At least where it is inaccurate, it is definitively inaccurate." -Douglas Adams

Re:Why?

[amliebsch]

First, to "lock in" decent versions of controversial articles. But second and more importantly, to be able to produce a stable, constant "edition" that can be referenced and cited to. How do you cite Wikipedia, when the content is always changing? Now you could write a paper and cite something like Person, Random, "Wikipedia Article," Wikipedia 2d ed. (2006). Very, very, important if WP is to become a legitimate source of information.