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[Bug-gnupedia] A Free Cyclopedia
From: |
David Tanzer |
Subject: |
[Bug-gnupedia] A Free Cyclopedia |
Date: |
Mon, 22 Jan 2001 04:07:37 -0500 (EST) |
I read that the word "encyclopedia" was used by the ancient Greeks in a
very broad sense, to designate the "circle of learning." Therefore, I think
we may extend the notion of what is an encyclopedia beyond the exact
literary form that printed encyclopedias have taken, as long as we keep
within the spirit of the circle of learning. Useful tables from an almanac,
and even online courses belong squarely within the circle of learning.
On the other hand, an encyclopedia should be an organized source of knowledge.
Hence there is an important role to be played by editors/helpers, in order
to make sure that it doesn't degenerate from a circle of learning into a
babble of opinions. And yes, I know that the transition between knowledge
and opinion is fuzzy, but that doesn't mean that there is not a real
distinction between them. We should be striving for truth.
Cyclopedia is actually a word in the dictionary, it's a little-used
variant on Encyclopedia. Therefore, both GNUcyclopedia and FreeCyclopedia
are descriptive names. I like them both. (But I have some ambivalence
about FreeCyclopedia, because of the ambiguity in "Free.")
As I posted before, I was planning a free cyclopedia for the last year.
Raoul Daruwala suggested the name gnucyclopedia, but I didn't want to step
into GNU's territory, so I went with freecyclopedia. I didn't get
much farther than obtaining the domains freecyclopedia.org/net/com.
If the GNU project should ever want to go with FreeCyclopedia, I'm willing
to turn over these domains. For Free :)
Dave Tanzer
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