User:Achal Nandi/sandbox

'''Wikipedia vs paper encyclopedia '''

Wikipedia has advantages over traditional paper encyclopedias. First, it is not limited in space: it can keep growing as fast as people add to it.

Second, there are no qualifications required to be able to author its articles. Therefore, it has a very large pool of contributors: the whole world. This, and the first advantage mentioned above, have enabled Wikipedia to become the most comprehensive encyclopedia on Earth.

Third, a paper encyclopedia remains ″static″ (stays the same) and falls out of date until the next edition. But Wikipedia is dynamic: you don't have to wait for the next edition to come out (there are no editions), as Wikipedia is published on-line as it is written on-line. Articles are made available as is, regardless of what stage of development they are in. You can update Wikipedia at any instant, and people do so continually around the clock, thereby helping each other to keep abreast of the most recent events everywhere and of the latest facts in every subject.

Fourth, Wikipedia has a very low "publishing" cost for adding or expanding entries, as it is on-line, with no need to buy paper or ink for distribution. This has allowed it to be made available for free, making it more accessible to everyone. This has enabled Wikipedia to be independently developed and published in many different languages at the same time, by people literate in each language. Of the 290+ different language Wikipedias, 137 of them have 10,000 or more articles.

Fifth, Wikipedia has a low environmental impact in some respects, since it never needs to be printed, although computers have their own environmental cost.

Sixth, Wikipedia is extra-linear (more than linear). Instead of in-line explanations, Wikipedia incorporates hypertext in the form of wikilinks. Throughout its content is a robust network of links, providing another dimension of knowledge accessibility. The encyclopedia also has correlates to tables of contents and indexes, with each entry in them hyperlinked to an article on the topic specified.

Seventh, each Wikipedia article provides an introduction summarizing the more extensive detail of its contents.

Eighth, being open to anyone to edit, articles on Wikipedia are subject to additions that might be erroneous or written poorly, which in turn are subject to being corrected or rewritten. It is a community effort, with most people who are involved helping to improve the work, fixing problems they encounter along the way.Achal Nandi (talk) 04:04, 9 May 2020 (UTC)