Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 2000
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All the Worlds bits for free?
All the Worlds bits for free? says Peter Cochrane

As a young child I remember visiting friends and being impressed by the number of books in their house. Books where everywhere - shelves and surfaces were stacked in all directions, but it was three particular shelves of thick and richly bound volumes arranged in alphabetic order that attracted my eye.

I was once allowed to hold and a look at one volume to be amazed by the physical weight, smallness of print, and lack of pictures. Quantum mechanics, I discovered, was about the inner workings of the atom - wow.

I was then informed, in a semi-reverent tone, that these were very expensive and essential books containing all the knowledge of the world. I continued to marvel for years later, and coming from a home largely devoid of books they seemed to be such an amazing luxury.

Much later I discovered that these volumes were the Encyclopedia Britannica, and for years I coveted the prospect of being able to afford such a luxury. But by the time I had children, and could consider the efficacy of such a purchase, I was able to count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I had referred to this massive compendium. I found this magazine of information to never have sufficient depth, always out of date, and available in some convenient library. So why buy?

The Encyclopedia Britannica started life in 1768 as a series of individual sections to became a three-volume bound set produced in Edinburgh 1771. The business was later sold to Sears & Roebuck and production moved to Chicago, and employed a global workforce of legendary door to door salesmen capable of making the Encyclopedia Britannica an essential for any home with children.

If you wanted well-balanced and educated children then this was the set of books for you. The year 1989 saw record sales exceeding £400M realised by a 2300 strong sales force. So do you suppose anyone used or received any great benefit from this mass of tree pulp? I suspect very few.

My guess is that for most households the principal benefit of books has always been the provision of very expensive thermal insulation on the outward facing walls. To this day I have never visited any book collector to find them engrossed in the content, or with the majority containing book-marks and pencilled comments in the margin. Moreover, I see precious few well-thumbed and dog-eared volumes. It seems that for 99.99% of the time they just sit there gently decomposing, decorating shelves and insulating walls.

In complete contrast producers of CD based Encyclopedias were initially cold-shouldered by academics and libraries. People scoffed at the shallow content, but ultimately Britannica responded with their own CD, but the sales force did not like the prospect. There were significant channel and commission conflicts, production difficulties, and a need to get the content on the net. The Internet effectively saw book sales collapse, and the company changed hands again and in 1996 with the Encyclopedia Britannica made available on-line.

This free access attempted to recoup costs through web-site advertising. A total lack of web interest saw further reductions in the work force to a few hundred. Today a visit to www.eb.com offers encyclopedia access for just $5 per month. Have I subscribed, and have you?

At such a price it is petty cash and no longer an investment problem for anyone with a PC. And there is a totally free consumer service at www.britannica.com. The answer for me is no because with the latest search engines and devices I seem to be able to find all I need for free on the net. And next? Music and movies? I reckon. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk