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Information Design—Week 2, Assignment 4

Compare and critique a traditional hardbound book series encyclopedia to an interactive encyclopedia of your choice. This may be a Web site or CD-ROM. Your critique should be approximately one page.

You should consider these questions:

• How easy is it to locate information?
• Which type of encyclopedia media did you find information quickest?
• Which offered more depth of information? And how is that?
• How do you understand the beginning and end of the information in each media?
• Which media is more dynamic and rich for learners or users?

Traditional encyclopedia articles are alphabetized. The content relevant to each topic is listed under its appropriate heading. Then, the next topic in the alphabetical sequence begins. Articles may reference other related articles. This linear fashion is not ideal for researching a single topic. Online- and CD-ROM-based encyclopedias have the advantage of having every article’s words indexed in a central database which allows users to search not only on the main topic, as an alphabetical index would, but also on the text of the articles themselves. This would simply not be a plausible method of finding information in a printed encyclopedia.

For me, it was easiest to find information online. I was able to find information quickest through Wikipedia; rather than flipping pages and watching for the words I am looking for, I simply typed my key phrase. Usually, a search isn’t even required as I will likely be able to guess the exact URI for the resource I am searching: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhateverIAmLookingFor.

For the articles I looked at, HTML and Internet, Wikipedia had a greater depth of information. This may or may not be indicative of the whole bodies of each of their information; Wikipedia, being a constantly updated encyclopedia, is consequently more likely to have more and newer information, especially about those technologies that make it possible in the first place—HTML and the Internet. Also, the fact that anyone can contribute to Wikipedia makes its potential for a larger base of information much greater than the limits of the writers of print encyclopedias.

In printed encyclopedias, the end of the segment on a particular topic is denoted by the heading of another topic. The articles are listed linearly, start to finish, back to back. There can be references to other related topics, including the topics and the pages on which they can be found. Online, the end of an article is even more pronounced—when you reach the end of the Web page.

Obviously, the very definition of Wikipedia—an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit—makes it more dynamic. The fact that pages and articles can instantly be changed to reflect current events reinforces this. Pope John Paul II, for instance, is still alive, according to the print encyclopedia, but online, his death is chronicled in depth.