Did you know that you can assemble your own wiki pages from Wikipedia and print them out in book form? You can, for a while now, thanks to a partnership between Wikimedia Foundation and a German startup called PediaPress. Last week, the wiki-to-print feature was activated for six more languages besides German but as of yesterday the functionality is also being tested on the regular English Wikipedia (restricted to logged-on users only for now).
You can check it out here, but you might want to visit the help pages first.
The books can be created with a table of contents or category lists and can be downloaded as free PDF files but also ordered as a printed book from PediaPress. PediaPress books are bound in dimensions 8″ x 5.5″ with a color cover and black & white interior, and the prices are reasonable. The cost of a book depends on the number of pages contained in addition to a base fee (starting at $8.90 for 100 pages) and worldwide shipping that’s charged extra.
As indicated by the Foundation, the roll-out for English Wikipedia users will be gradual out of fear for scalability issues, so it’s currently still in test mode. We’re trying to find out when the organization will open it up for non-registered users and will update this post if we learn more.
You can find a sample book on the fascinating subject of ‘Amphibious Aircrafts’ here (PDF).
And if you’re wondering if PediaPress got a sweet deal out of the partnership, the answer is yes. The Wikimedia Foundation receives (only) 10% of the gross total for each book sold. Another part of the agreement is the development of open source software with the goal to ease the reuse of wiki content in other media or applications.
(Image from Wikipedia, hat tip goes to Ross Masters)
FYI … typo in the title “you” should be “your”.
Doh, fixed.
Wow, what a green idea.
lol still cool though
freefreebiefinder.com/
Wow, this is very cool, now I can easily assemble my favorite story and create my own book.. checking the site now!
This is actually a neat idea…especially if there is a Wiki already written about you. You could have your own biography without having to write it or hire someone on to do it! Oh to be famous enough to have your own Wiki!!
if they are going to start printing the information from Wikipedia they should check everything to see if it’s right. I’ve seen a lot of articles with errors in them and printing an innacurate book and trying to teach someone thing from that book won’t be too great. Still, it’s a good feature and i bet a lot of people will start to use it.
There is something similar for real books as well:
http://www.publ...ainreprints.org
Also, chk out http://newfiction.com/ for audio book publishing.
hmm, doesn’t this kind of defeat the purpose of editable content? Nonetheless, still a cool idea
http://tr.im/gOUl
Great service…
Marcelo
printing a wiki pages doesn’t make sense.. if somebody updates the contents then you have to print them again? it’s a waste of ink and paper, i think
And regular books never contain error or things that need to be adjusted over time? Come on.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to do this for blogs? I’d love to read a few blogs from “cover to cover” without having to click through each post.
Check this: http://theprintedblog.com/
I like the idea of bring reading back to the mainstream. This is great for kids and their research papers.
I’m wondering how much of a “sweet deal” it really is for PediaPress.
When you consider the nature of the deal, you need to take into account that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GDFL, so anyone can already offer a service for printing Wikipedia articles, as long as they make sure to respect the terms of the license. (From what I’ve seen of the PDF generation system, PediaPress has this covered well.)
The main things that PediaPress gets through a formal partnership are a) permission to use the copyrighted and trademarked Wikipedia logo in certain contexts and b) visible links to the service. Wikimedia gets 10% of revenues and open-source wiki-article-to-PDF software (which is nothing to sniff at, when you consider the intricacies of wiki syntax). It’s to be noted that 10% of *revenues* is much different from 10% of *profits*.
If you ask me, it seems like a relatively fair deal as long as it’s not an exclusive one.
I wonder about the copyright implications for all the pictures posted to wikipedia. On wikipedia, it may be claimed that the pictures are educational fair use but when printed out in a book by a 3rd party, I’m not so sure. Seems suspect to me.
Cool, so this means I can get an Offbeat Guide for free
Well, I ever think how can I print the Wikipedia Articles before. Looks pretty cool!
I doubt how many people might be using this. After all who has the time to read a hell lot of pages to understand a concept. If I need to understand a concept, I would rather prefer to use http://www.youtube.com or http://www.slideshare.com or http://www.vizedu.com
This is amazing; millions of people visit wikipedia every day. Some of them want the content and the only way is to copy from web page and paste on MS-word or any text editor. If the content is available in the form of PDF or a book that can be carried any where or can be read without the worry of internet connection.
Well, I ever think how can I print the Wikipedia Articles before. Looks pretty cool!
I’m not so sure. Seems suspect to me.