别了，大英百科全书
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一个自由的、用户可参与编辑的百科全书是否优于一个专业的百科全书，这个问题有些太宽泛了。它们是两种截然不同的产品，其中的一个是否“好于”另一个，主要取决于你要拿它来干什么。但毫无疑问的是，从严格的实用主义的角度来看，数码百科全书要比印刷版方便得多。它可以更方便地进行查阅和搜索，或是跳到相关文章上去（具体到维基百科则是可迅速访问相关的外部来源）。 不过看到印刷版百科全书的终结，还是让人不免唏嘘。这些看来令人敬畏的书籍有一种特殊的美感，排在书架上，好像一排知识的士兵。这种感觉是一个应用或一个网页无论如何也无法媲美的。 当然，这并不能阻止新媒体大师们不合时宜地欢庆胜利，比如一向语言辛辣大胆、鼓吹将一切数字化的媒体评论家杰夫•贾维斯，他总是爱对印刷出版商的遭遇幸灾乐祸。这次他在Tweeter上写道：“大英百科全书总是利用人们的内疚心理抢钱。拜拜了！” 后来贾维斯坚称，由于大英百科全书继续向数码方向发展，使知识“超越了界限”，因此他在Tweeter上的欢呼完全是积极的。但他个人的心情却从第一条微博上一览无余。我们不知道2000年的时候，纽约科尼岛上的云霄飞车被拆除时，他的心情是否也是那么欢欣雀跃。这座云霄飞车悄无声息、毫无用处地矗立了将近20年，但它已经成了当地人生活中的一个重要的部分，人们发自本能地觉得它和自己息息相关。它的拆除不可避免，但真的走到这一步，人们还是觉得难过。 译者：朴成奎 |
Whether a free, editable encyclopedia is better than a professionally produced one is too wide-ranging a question. They're really two entirely different products, and whether one is "better" than the other depends on what you need it for. But there's no question that in a strictly utilitarian sense, it's far better to publish any kind of encyclopedia digitally. It's easier to look stuff up, to search for terms within articles, and to jump to related articles (and in Wikipedia's case, outside sources). Still, it's sad to witness the demise of the print edition. There's an aesthetic quality to all those formidable looking books, lined up along the shelf like soldiers of knowledge, that can't be matched by an app or a Web page. That of course hasn't stopped the new-media gurus from crowing their oddly misplaced triumphalism today. Jeff Jarvis, the combative champion of all things digital who wields buzzwords like a Ninja wields throwing stars and who regularly celebrates the suffering of print publishers, opened his long string of giddy tweets this way: "Britannica was always a rip-off sold on guilt. Buh-bye." He later insisted that his glee was entirely positive, based on Britannica's forging ahead into the digital future and allowing knowledge to "escape its bounds." But his underlying feelings were made clear in that first tweet. One wonders whether he similarly applauded when they finally tore down the Thunderbolt roller coaster on Coney Island in 2000. The thing was just sitting there, dormant and useless, for nearly 20 years. And yet it had been an important part of people's lives, something they felt connected to in a visceral way. It had to come down, but for those people, it was sad when it did. |
