0.01% of Wikipedia as a printed book

http://www.labnol.org/internet/wikipedia-printed-book/9136/

by danenania • 15 years ago

31 25 15 years ago

vog2• 15 years ago

I like the idea of demonstrating the impressive size of Wikipedia by printing a book. However, the article withholds important base information:

* Which paper format and size has been used? (Letter? A4?)

* How big are the page margins?

* Is it printed one-sided or two-sided?

* Which font and font-size have been used?

* What line-distance has been used? (100%, 150%, ... ?)

* What does the "0.01%" refer to? (to the number of words, or just to the number of articles?)

Without this information, the given facts like "5000 pages" are almost meaningless.

chalst• 15 years ago

According to http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/ it has 5000 pages, consisting of just the WP featured articles. No example typeset pages are given.

Jabbles2• 15 years ago

The latest results aren't available yet, but the most recent word count of 6 billion dates from Nov 09. 0.01% of that over 5000 pages would give 120 words per page. Something is missing.

Nor does the "0.01%" refer to the number of articles. The author's website says this is a printout of the (English) "Featured articles" (currently 3235). Neither dividing that by the number of English articles (3.6M) or total articles (18.1M) gives 0.01%.

So I can't see where they got 0.01% from.

http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles

http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/

vog2• 15 years ago

Although I appreciate your effort, I don't think it makes any sense that we try figure this out on our own.

It's the task of the author, not the readers, to deliver those facts.

estel• 15 years ago

This story dates from June 2009, but taking into account the article counts from this date (2.9 million, 13.6 million for English / all respectively) doesn't account for the disparity in numbers.

brudgers• 15 years ago

>"Is it printed one-sided or two-sided?"

From the first photo it appears to be one sided

beej71• 15 years ago

If you've ever thumbed through the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll know these are all very valid questions. :)

phirephly2• 15 years ago

Only 5,000 pages? I have books that are over 2,600 pages that don't even break 2.5" (eg Machinery's Handbook). Even using standard 20lb printer paper, my calculations don't have it breaking a foot. They must have used something like card stock, just to add shock value to it.

Seriously though, turning Wikipedia into dead tree media is something that should be taken more seriously. Without much effort, relatively interesting primers on subjects could be put together with relatively little effort. Think "Cryptographic algorithms" or "Battles of WW2" or "Countries of Africa" Collect and curate a selection carefully, and throw it up on some place like lulu.

adambyrtek• 15 years ago

There are fishy companies that sell print-on-demand "books" based directly on Wikipedia articles, mentioning the source only in small print. I guess most of their customers don't realize that they buy something available for free on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDM_Publishing

phirephly2• 15 years ago

Yes, so the collector would definitely need to be creating value-added through the curation process, through the preface, index, which articles are selected, how they're ordered, etc.

Jabbles2• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density#Conversions

5000 pages of 20lb paper would be 0.485m tall.

2.5"/2600 = 0.024m, which looks like 4lb paper - seriously thin.

michael_dorfman2• 15 years ago

Even easier to visualize: a ream of paper (for example, what you put in your printer) is 500 sheets. So, stack five of those on top of each other, and you have 5000 pages (plus a little extra for the wrappers.

Needless to say, it's nowhere near the tower pictured in the photo.

EDIT: corrected "sheets" for my previous, incorrect "pages", which changed the number of reams to five.

mynameishere• 15 years ago

http://www.amazon.com/Merck-Manual-Diagnosis-Therapy-18th/dp...

3000 pages, 2 inches thick.

patrickaljord• 15 years ago

There's an easy way to print from the wikipedia or any wikimedia wiki:

http://pediapress.com/

It's also open source, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM

limmeau• 15 years ago

What I like most about Wikipedia is the random reading binges, where you get from History of Lithuania to Glass Onion (Beatles song), stop by at surface-to-air missiles and finish with the Carlsberg brewery.

Perhaps print-on-demand unique pre-made binges "100% guaranteed random subjects" are a business idea? As an alternative to newspapers in train station kiosks?

thret• 15 years ago

This. The choose-your-own adventure element to Wikipedia is what makes it so immersive.

start123• 15 years ago

He could have separated the book into different volumes and alloted different books for different topics. Would have made his and the reader's life easier

tomstuart• 15 years ago

For a different axis, see also: http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

nakkiel• 15 years ago

I heard about this back when it was released. IMO a much more interesting reading. I heard the guys behind it have other projects.

That kind of book provides a view on the events never before available. It's a condensed testimonial about a globalized/globalazing society and its many cultures.

dustinupdyke• 15 years ago

"Think of the trees!" -Unless

Gibbon• 15 years ago

Here is a twelve volume set consisting of the entire edit history of the "Iraq War" entry on Wikipedia.

http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

hammock• 15 years ago

Wow, how short is that guy standing next to it, if the book is only 19 inches high? It comes up to his knees!

0.01% of Wikipedia as a printed book

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