Wikipedia in print?
November 1, 2005 
Wikipedia, the online user-written encyclopedia, may soon travel offline — all the way to the printed pages of a book.
Entries from Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia written and edited by Internet users, may soon be available in print for readers in the developing world, founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday.
He said content from the Web site may also be burned onto CDs and DVDs so computer users in places like Africa, who lack access to high-speed Internet, could consult parts of the reference work offline
Great developments for a great online concept, but many questions remain unanswered about Wikipedia going to print. Such as what sections would be included, how the content would be verified, and who would trust it enough to use it.
As often as bloggers and other Internet users seem to reference Wikipedia, isn’t the question of verifying it’s content the most unstable feature? With anyone allowed to contribute, many great topics can be added that wouldn’t appear in, say, Encyclopedia Brittanica, but verifying added content can be troublesome, if not impossible in some cases.
How can the developing world rely on a printed version of a project for information that Internet users can’t always be sure they can trust?
