Encarta
Encarta is a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. An online version of English language Encarta is available free on the World Wide Web with limited content (4,500 articles); there is a monthly subscription for accessing all content and homework tools (68,000+ articles) as of 2005. A full English version is available for purchase on multiple CD-ROMs or a DVD-ROM. Some articles were originally based on those from the former Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia.
Microsoft publishes similar encyclopedias under the Encarta trademark in various languages, including German, French, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese. Localized versions may contain contents licensed from available national sources and may contain more or less content than the full English version. For example, the Dutch version has content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia.
David Hirning is one of the "Encarta Reference Editors" as of 2005, while Gary Alt is the Editorial Director.
Contents
Its standard and online edition includes approximately 41,000 articles, with additional images, videos and sounds. The premium editions contain appoximately 68,000 articles and other multimedia content, such as 25,000 pictures and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, and an interactive atlas with 1.8 million locations. Its articles are integrated with multimedia content and may have a collection of links to websites selected by its editors. A sidebar may display alternative views or original materials relevant to the topic.
Encarta's Visual Browser, available since the 2004 version, presents a user with a list of related topics. Its multimedia includes virtual 3-dimensional tours of ancient structures, for example the Acropolis; 2-dimensional panoramic images of world wonders or cities; and a virtual flight program which moves the user over landscape.
Encarta also includes a trivia game called "MindMaze" in which the player explored a castle by answering questions whose answers could be found in the encyclopedia's articles.
For years, Encarta came in three primary software flavors: Basic, Premium, and Reference Library (price and features in that order.) Beginning in 2005, however, Microsoft added Microsoft Student as the premier Microsoft educational software program, bundling Encarta with graphing calculator software and templates for Microsoft Office. In addition, the Reference Library was discontinued, absorbed into a newer, more comprehensive Premium package.
World atlas
The dynamic maps are generated with the same engine that powered Microsoft MapPoint software. The map is a virtual globe that one can freely rotate and magnify to any location down to major streets for big cities. The globe has multiple surfaces displaying political boundaries, physical landmarks, and statistical information. One can selectively display different sized cities, various geological or man-made features and reference lines in a map.
The maps contain hyperlinks to related articles ("Map Trek") and also supports a "Dynamic Sensor" that provides the latitude, longitude, placename, population and local time for any point on the globe. Encarta also generates a visible-light moon atlas with names of major craters and hyperlinks. However, it does not include a planetarium.
In addition to database generated maps, many other illustrative maps in Encarta ("Historical Maps") are drawn by artists. Some more advanced maps are interactive, for example, the large African map for Africana can display information such as political boundries or the distribution of African flora.
Encarta Dictionary
When Encarta was released as part of the "Reference Suite" in 1998 (though to 2000), Microsoft bundled "Microsoft Bookshelf" with the other three programs (Encarta Encyclopedia 98 Deluxe Edition, Encarta Virtual Globe 98, and Encarta Research Organizer). However, this was problematic.
Microsoft Bookshelf (Reference Edition) already contained "Encarta Desk Encyclopedia" and "Encarta Desk Atlas", thus becoming redundant with the full editions provided as part of the suite.
In later editions (Encarta Suite 2000 and onwards) Bookshelf was replaced with a dedicated Encarta Dictionary, a superset of the printed edition.
There has been some controversy over the decision, since the dictionary lacks the other books provided in Bookshelf which many found to be a useful reference, such as Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (replaced with a quotations section in Encarta that links to relevant articles and people) and an Internet Directory (although now a moot point since many of the sites listed in offline directories aren't around anymore).
Technology
Encarta made use of various Microsoft technologies. For example, the map engine is adapted from its MapPoint software. Unlike Microsoft Office, Encarta software only supports Microsoft Windows with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Encarta 98 was the last version to be released for the Macintosh. However, an Apple Macintosh or UNIX user with Internet connection may still access Encarta's website.
Encarta uses database technologies to generate many of its multimedia contents. For example, Encarta generates each zoomable map from a global geographic information system database on demand.
When a user uses the copy and paste function of Microsoft Windows on Encarta on more than five words, Encarta automatically appends a copyright boilerplate message after the paste.
Suggesting changes
Early in 2005, the online Encarta introduced a feature allowing users to suggest changes via a WYSIWYG interface [1]. User feedback is submitted to Encarta's editors for review, copyediting, and approval. This caused a stir among bloggers, as some (e.g. [2]) saw this as an attempt by Microsoft to adapt the methods which made Wikipedia so successful. However, Encarta made no attempt to encourage the formation of an editor community. Indeed, the review requirements put on user changes more closely resemble the traditional submission of corrections by mail or email than the characteristically fast publication of a wiki.
Criticism
Criticism of the encyclopedia has focused on some articles being slow to be updated. For example, an early 2005 edition of the article about the political philosopher John Rawls opens with "Rawls, John (1921- )", although he had died on November 24, 2002. Encarta failed to note the date of his passing until April 2005—about 2½ years after the event. As of July 2005, the web version of the Rawls article includes his date of death. [3].
Other critics dismiss Encarta as having neither the breadth, depth and authoritative contributors of other encyclopedias such as the Encyclopædia Britannica, nor the currency and participatory nature of Wikipedia.
See also
External links
- Encarta online — with limited free access and features.
- Microsoft Encarta product
- Microsoft Student product
- History and some other information about Encarta by Microsoft
- The facts depend on where you are coming from An essay on the cultural problems of point of view problems in an encyclopedia. Author of the essay is supposed to be Bill Gates
- Encarta SupportZone A website run by Stephen Stakey, a Microsoft MVP for MSN Encarta, that gives support and tips for Encarta users.