Ed Felten checks Wikipedia against Brittanica:
Me: Wikipedia has a short but decent entry; Britannica, unsurprisingly, has nothing. Verdict: advantage Wikipedia.
Virtual memory: Wikipedia has a pretty good entry; Britannica has no entry for virtual memory, and doesn't appear to discuss the concept elsewhere, either. Verdict: advantage Wikipedia.
Public-key cryptography: Good, accurate entries in both. Verdict: toss-up.
This pretty clearly reinforces Paul's comment that Wikipedia -- as a creation of people with spare time and computers -- is likely to have a particular sort of focus... Frankly, I'm impressed that Brittanica talks about public-key cryptography, and I don't think I'd decline to pick up a Brittanica because it doesn't cover virtual memory.
September 7, 2004 08:41 AM | TrackBack | in Data and Documents