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Wikipedia plans to charge large organizations using its encyclopedia
Wikipedia is set to launch a commercial product later this year that will see it sell customized data sets to tech giants including Google and Apple.
The official 'Super Mario Bros.' encyclopedia is here
After a years-long wait, the official Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia is available outside of Japan. The 256-page compendium is available in both a $40 standard edition as well as an $80 limited version with a random, holofoil-trimmed cover in a question mark slipcase. Whichever version you pick, it should be a relatively comprehensive history of the Mario series up to its 30th anniversary in 2015.
'Super Mario Bros.' encyclopedia comes to the US October 23rd
Nintendo did many things to mark the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., but there's been one you couldn't usually get your hands on unless you lived in Japan: the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia. You'll be glad to hear that it's coming to the West, though. Dark Horse Publishing has announced that the official guide to Mario's universe will be available in a standard edition in the US on October 23rd for $40. Amazon is also hinting at releases in the UK and Europe, although we don't have official information as of this writing.
Wikipedia issues near-total ban on Daily Mail sources
As a rule, Wikipedia accepts most any publication as an article source. If the information is credible and verifiable, it doesn't usually matter where it comes from. However, it just made one giant exception. The online encyclopedia has issued a near-total ban on using the Daily Mail as a source after editors came to the consensus that the British tabloid is "generally unreliable." It has a history of "poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication," editors say, and things it reports as true can usually be found elsewhere.
Wikipedia fund gives the site a long-term future
Wikipedia just turned 15 years old, but you wouldn't know it from the nigh-on inescapable donation drives -- the crowdsourced encyclopedia often seems as if it's months away from extinction. The Wikimedia Foundation (its parent organization) may have a way to keep the site around for the long haul, however. It's launching the Wikimedia Endowment, a "perpetual" support fund for Wikipedia and other Foundation efforts. The goal is to raise $100 million over the next 10 years, or enough to both improve its independence and give it room to grow.
Wikipedia adds Draft feature to ease pressure on article writers
Here's a Wikipedia stat you probably didn't know: around 80 percent of new contributions to the crowdsourced encyclopedia are abandoned before they're submitted. The organization thinks a lot of writers get cold feet because, since its creation, Wikipedia has deliberately prevented them from being able to save their articles without publishing them: you either went public or you went home. That's changing now, as the site has decided to implement a Draft mode that allows work to be saved while still remaining invisible to most search queries. The site's designers acknowledge that the feature is pretty basic right now, but they promise it'll be refined over time to allow for collaboration on articles that are still in the draft state. The addition of tools like these make sense given that Wikipedia's legion of volunteer contributors is reportedly shrinking, leaving its pages more vulnerable to the influence of iffy PR firms, but the organization says it has simply "matured" to the point where it can afford to be more flexible about how new content is created.
Capcom 30th anniversary character encyclopedia listed on Amazon for October
A listing for a Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia recently popped up on Amazon, and is noted to launch on October 21. The encyclopedia is a 208-page hard-cover book that will offer "concise information about every major Capcom character, their key artwork, statistics, background information, and interesting notes on the history of each character and game franchise." Published by Brady Games, the book will contain information about almost 200 characters and their respective games. It has a list price of $16.99, but can currently be pre-ordered for $11.04.
City of Steam's bestiary gives pre-launch advantage
While we're twiddling our thumbs waiting for the steampunk City of Steam to finally release, Mechanist Games has a great way that we can prepare for the launch. The team has put a spotlight on the website's bestiary, a helpful encyclopedia of creatures and people that players will be encountering in the game proper. Beyond just providing some flavor and filling in some lore, the bestiary has a practical purpose by giving players details as to the strengths, weaknesses, and relationships between the mobs. The bestiary can be searched by individual creatures and by species and has plenty of cool pictures to boot.
Glitch preserves game memories via encyclopedia
It's slightly unusual to get a "post-game update" from a closed MMO, but then again, Glitch always was unusual. Tiny Speck wrote a post to thank players for the support and encouragement received following last month's sunset and also to let everyone know that the team is preserving Glitch's art assets and memories through the website's encyclopedia under a Creative Commons license. "When we shut off the servers on December 9th, players left thousands of notes scattered throughout the world. They were wonderful -- sometimes sad, sometimes funny, occasionally weird, and always heartfelt," the team wrote. To honor the players, the staff has included these notes in Glitch's encyclopedia on the location pages. Tiny Speck says that the encyclopedia and other assets will remain up and running even as the rest of the website spins down in upcoming months.
PC version of Assassin's Creed 3 'UbiWorkshop Edition' pulls back its hood
Ubisoft was all too happy to reveal its $99.99 UbiWorkshop Edition of Assassin's Creed 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3 back in May, but today finally brings word that there will be a special UbiWorkshop Edition of the latest stabbing simulator for the PC crowd. It's available for pre-order right now.Just like its console cousins, the PC version will include a hardcover encyclopedia, graphic novels The Fall and The Chain, and a copy of Assassin's Creed 3, all bundled in special packaging for $99.99. Watch out for paper cuts!
Bots edit Wikipedia, clean up your nonsense
Wikipedia, a triumph of human effort, knowledge and collaboration... or so we thought. Turns out that along with the tens of thousands of brains regularly editing the online encyclopedia, hundreds of bots also patrol the virtual aisles keeping us in check. Some of the bots take care of the boring stuff -- organizing, formatting and other admin. Others correct the wrongdoings of wiki-villains, such as removing off-topic vandalism and naughty language. In the beginning, pages were even created by select bots, pulling data from various sources to create bare bones records for our keystrokes to flesh out. They do a pretty good job, but there are fears that a rogue bot will one day ruin a lot of hard work, although due to the privileges needed it would have to be an inside job. So now you know -- the machines not only have access to the largest single collection of human knowledge, but they edit it for us too. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Assassin's Creed 3 Ubiworkshop Edition has 500 pages for $100
The Assassin's Creed 3 Ubiworkshop Edition will include the Assassin's Creed Encyclopedia Second Edition and Assassin's Creed Subject 4, a compilation of the graphic novels The Fall and The Chain. It will also include the game, but when you have an encyclopedia and some comic books, what self-respecting nerd needs video games?The Ubiworkshop Edition is for Xbox 360 and PS3 and costs $100 in a special pre-order price, valid through July 4, and $110 following that completely random day, exclusively on Ubiworkshop. Ubisoft promises this edition includes more than 500 pages of narrative content: The encyclopedia alone runs $50 and each comic is $20 separately on Ubiworkshop, so on top of a $60 game, this edition is a steal.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print
It was probably inevitable, but on Tuesday, it became official: the Encyclopaedia Britannica is finally going out of print. The news was confirmed yesterday by Jorge Cauz, president of Chicago-based Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., who told the New York Times that his company has decided to completely abandon print operations, in favor of its online platform. The announcement marks the end of a remarkable 244-year run for Britannica and its leather-bound tomes, which at one point stood as a hallmark of middle class living rooms and libraries. In fact, it's been barely two decades since the company reached its high water mark, when it sold some 120,000 sets back in 1990. Once the internet came into full bloom, however, Britannica's sales soon plummeted. In 2010, the publisher sold just 8,000 sets, leaving an additional 4,000 unsold copies to gather dust in a warehouse.Tuesday's announcement may mark the end of an era, but Cauz seems to have come to terms with Britannica's decision, calling it a "rite of passage." He's also eager to devote more time to his company's website, which will look to chip away at Wikipedia's market hegemony. Cauz, however, believes the two platforms can (and must) co-exist, because they fill two different roles. "We cannot deal with every single cartoon character, we cannot deal with every love life of every celebrity," he explained. "But we need to have an alternative where facts really matter. Britannica won't be able to be as large, but it will always be factually correct."
Orange offers free Wikipedia access to mobile users in Africa and the Middle East
There are more than 70 million Orange customers across Africa and the Middle East, but only about 10 million are able to access the web from their handsets. That gap may be narrowing, though, now that the provider has decided to offer free mobile access to Wikipedia for users throughout the region. Under the program, users with an Orange SIM card and a web-enabled phone will be able to access the site as many times as they want, without incurring any data charges. Heralding the partnership as the first of its kind, Orange says its new initiative should make it easier for emerging market consumers to access the online encyclopedia, which Wikimedia Foundation director Sue Gardner described as a "public good." The offer is slated to roll out across 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East, beginning early this year. Find more details in the press release, after the break.
iPad explorations with Qwiki
The developers behind the Qwiki website have produced a pretty cool iPad app version of the site. The app looks like a great way to experience Qwiki's narrated-encyclopaedia version of the world, offering location-sensitive lookups and making full use of the touch-capabilities of the iPad. "Qwiki's fundamental belief has always been that media consumption is moving off the desktop," says co-founder and CEO Doug Imbruce. The company, which recently raised $9 million in funding, has released the app for free. [Via Mashable]
Lost Pages of Taborea: Finding time to play Runes of Magic
Ever since my semester started up, I've had to learn new ways to budget my time. My schedule cuts right through the middle of every day, which is both good and bad. I don't have to get up at an obscene hour for class, and I'm not in school through the night. It still makes it hard to play Runes of Magic and other MMOs, though, as it chops my free-time up into short, interspersed chunks. I initially found some ways to satiate my gaming addiction by -- gasp -- playing Perpetuum. Games like Perpetuum -- and I suspect EVE Online -- have some nice pacing that allows me to go semi-AFK while I work on homework, articles or whatever. I can find safe places with large ore deposits, lay down a large container, and mine for 30 minutes at a time or longer. I'm still visiting the world of Taborea on weekends, and I make quick pit-stops during the week to check up on my fellow guild members, but I realized during my last visit that there are some nice ways for the returning college student to get in some game time and get his or her school-work done. If you find your having trouble balancing work, school and life with RoM, you might find some satisfaction in the long term pet, guild, crafting, and skill-building goals.
TUAW's Daily App: Articles
We've talked about Articles here on the site before. Out of all of the apps that won Apple Design Awards this year, I would say it's probably the most underrated and most useful. It's a Wikipedia reader, which doesn't sound like much since the mobile version of Wikipedia is pretty good already. Having a dedicated app for the open source encyclopedia makes a surprising difference, though, and it allows you to consume all of that content in a really focused way. There are integrated maps and photos and lots of different ways to browse information, including shaking the iPhone to see a random page. The new update doesn't hurt either; version 1.3 adds a language picker, a new Table of Contents sheet, and an orientation lock that even works on the iPhone (a previous update already made the app all ready for iOS 4.0 and the Retina Display). Articles is US$2.99, which might seem pricey to browse content that you can already read for free. However, if you've participated in a few marathon Wikipedia sessions just by following a few random reference links, it's well worth the purchase.
Capcom and Udon creating Street Fighter encyclopedia
click for full size Put down that Street Fighter-themed pen, pick up your Street Fighter-themed mouse, and get on with the Amazon pre-ordering, as Capcom and Udon have just revealed details on the upcoming "Street Fighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia." Rather than hitting the internet for reference points during your hours of painstaking fanfic writing, you'll soon be able crossreference the 136-page strong paperback for the decently low entry fee of $10. Since the book won't be dragon-kicking its way into retailers (or mailboxes) until this June, all we've got to abate your thirst for knowledge immediately is Udon artists Alvin Lee, Jo Chen, Arnold Tsang, Jeffrey Cruz, Joe Ng, Gonzalo Ordonez, Omar Dogan, "and more," will be working on the book. Oh, also, if you ever wanted to know where Ryu got that sweet headband, it's totally in there.
Wikimedia Foundation creates official iPhone app
The Wikimedia Foundation has just released a free app for accessing the web based encyclopedia right on your iPhone or iPod touch. Wikipedia Mobile [iTunes link] brings the full boatload of Wikipedia knowledge to a nicely formatted iPhone screen. In my tests, it responded quickly, and without any glitches over Wi-Fi and the 3G network. The only issues really are that there are already dozens of similar apps available for the iPhone. In fact, if you go to the Wikipedia site in Safari things are nicely optimized for the iPhone screen. Of course the app has a built in history button, but Safari does too. Some of the other Wikipedia apps I've tried are Wikipanion [iTunes link], which has more features, including changing the font size, and Wikiamo [iTunes link] that allows landscape view, reading of saved material offline, and links to other languages. I'd like to see the ability to email entries to myself or others, and the Wikipedia Mobile support page just goes to the home page of Wikipedia. That's not too helpful. One other odd thing. When trying to install the software on a first generation iPod touch, users are reporting it fails with an error message saying a microphone is needed. Huh? However you access it, Wikipedia is a great resource, and the Wikimedia Foundation says it will be updating the app frequently based on user requests. The current version is 0.1, so I think this app is just getting started.
Psychonauts encyclopedia wants your brain
Double Fine has (thankfully) not forgotten its beloved platformer, Psychonauts -- and neither has its legion of fans. The developer recently launched a wiki-style "Psycho-pedia" to flesh out the game's 'verse, offering up articles on all of its important people, places, and things. Oh, so many things.What's more, Tim Schafer and crew have opened the tome of knowledge to ... your knowledge. By creating an account at the site, you can update the articles with info that (gasp!) even the developer might have overlooked. Double Fine is also soliciting fan art, fan music, cosplay photos, and "any other art you may have created while under the influence of Psychonauts." We can see this getting fittingly weird.
