5 ms·

0.01% of Wikipedia as a printed book

31 points by danenania 16y ago

vog 16y 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 16y ago
  According to http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/ 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.
- Jabbles 16y 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://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/ http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/
  - vog 16y 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.
    - camiller 16y ago
      Some of the comments at the article site seem to be from the author. One of them says they selected 400 articles from the featured articles and at the time that was 0.013% of all the articles.
  - estel 16y 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 16y ago
  >"Is it printed one-sided or two-sided?" From the first photo it appears to be one sided
- beej71 16y ago
  If you've ever thumbed through the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll know these are all very valid questions. :)
phirephly 16y 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 16y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDM_Publishing
  - phirephly 16y 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.
- Jabbles 16y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density#Conversions 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_dorfman 16y 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.
patrickaljord 16y ago
There's an easy way to print from the wikipedia or any wikimedia wiki: http://pediapress.com/ http://pediapress.com/ It's also open source, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM
limmeau 16y 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 16y ago
  This. The choose-your-own adventure element to Wikipedia is what makes it so immersive.
start123 16y 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 16y ago
For a different axis, see also: http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/ http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/
- nakkiel 16y 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 16y ago
"Think of the trees!" -Unless
Gibbon 16y 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/ http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/
hammock 16y 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!

31 points by danenania 16y ago

vog 16y 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 16y ago
According to http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/ 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.
Jabbles 16y 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://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaZZ.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/ http://www.rob-matthews.com/index.php?/project/wikipedia/
- vog 16y 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.
  - camiller 16y ago
    Some of the comments at the article site seem to be from the author. One of them says they selected 400 articles from the featured articles and at the time that was 0.013% of all the articles.
- estel 16y 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 16y ago
>"Is it printed one-sided or two-sided?" From the first photo it appears to be one sided
beej71 16y ago
If you've ever thumbed through the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll know these are all very valid questions. :)

phirephly 16y 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 16y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDM_Publishing
- phirephly 16y 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.
Jabbles 16y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density#Conversions 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_dorfman 16y 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.

patrickaljord 16y ago

There's an easy way to print from the wikipedia or any wikimedia wiki: http://pediapress.com/ http://pediapress.com/ It's also open source, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K03AZfpDM

limmeau 16y 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 16y ago
This. The choose-your-own adventure element to Wikipedia is what makes it so immersive.

start123 16y 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 16y ago

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

nakkiel 16y 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 16y ago

"Think of the trees!" -Unless

Gibbon 16y 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/ http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

hammock 16y 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!