There is one big advantage that can’t be made up for by all the paid experts in the world: Wikipedia is virtually self-updating.

Once you write an article for a print-and-spine encyclopedia, it’s done. It’s in print and in homes and offices. They continue to be referred to 5 years later, despite new discoveries, because the set cost so much in the first place. Ultimately, that can lead to a type of historical fact/present inaccuracy problem which can be great, anthropologically, 50 or 100 years from now, but not entirely useful at the moment.

Enter the digital knowledge basin called Wikipedia, and sister and daughter sites there of. On there, although there are the pitfalls of the occasionally as-yet-unwritten article or the wrong person stealing the pen, generally, you have up-to-date articles, balanced debate on inclusions and depth of subject, and often some of the most active and educated people of each respective field who wants to make sure people get it right when they look for knowledge.

How many Encyclopedia can you look up the current Iraq war in? What about the Fijian Coup? Or the Russian spy poisoning scandal? None…yet. You must wait until the information is digested, studied, and complied by the ‘paid experts’, then it goes to editor, makes the cut or gets the axe, goes to print, then is on your shelf in the Encyclopedia _____ 2007-2008 Edition.

OR, you can look it up today at Wikipedia, or similar, and be informed by historian and others, in a range of interest, who are following the events closely, and updating often, usually after breaking news, sometimes daily.

I grew up with a set of ye old Britannica and it was very good but I’ll take Wikipedia any day. Not only for immediacy and conveinence (which are *big* pluses) but also because it serves as a gateway to further knowledge. There’s always a few helpful links in each entry, sometimes hordes of them. I can’t click on something in an dead tree Encylopedia entry and go elsewhere.

And at least Wikipedia doesn’t employ pushy salespeople to ring your doorbell. The Britannica salesman sold my dad a set of Encylopedias he couldn’t afford by trying to make him feel guilty about not providing for his six year old son’s future. I always felt a little bad about that. Another plus in Wikipedia’s column as far as I’m concerned.