24 February 2009

Print your own Wikipedia

Here's an interesting development, via The Bookseller.com: print your own customized encyclopaedia, using Wikipedia. "An authoring tool on the Wikipedia website allows users to chose their own encyclopaedia content from the database choosing particular categories or subject areas they like. The book can then be previewed and ordered through PediaPress who transmit the PDF to Lightning Source to print." Apparently the service launched in the German language two weeks ago, and starts this week in various other languages including French, Italian and Spanish. English follows next week, on 1 March. Apparently the technology can be used with any database (I wonder if it works in a similar way to those nice "turn your blog into a book" services?), and is being likened to people's use of an mp3 player to pick and choose their favourite music.

 

24 Feb 2009 20:31:59 | Publishing

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