Encarta
Encarta is a
digital multimedia encyclopedia published and updated frequently by
Microsoft Corporation.
As of 2005, the complete English version,
Encarta Premium, consists of more than 68,000 articles, numerous images and movies, and homework tools, and is available on the
World Wide Web by yearly subscription or by purchase on multiple
CD-ROMs or . Many articles can also be viewed online for free, a service supported by advertisements.
[For the free service, one should use the URL http://search.msn.com/encarta/results.aspx (MSN Search Encarta) rather than http://encarta.msn.com (MSN Encarta : Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas, and Homework)]Microsoft publishes similar encyclopedias under the
Encarta trademark in various
languages, including
German,
French,
Spanish,
Dutch,
Italian and
Japanese.
Localized versions may contain contents licensed from available national sources and may contain more or less content than the full English version. For example, the Dutch version has content from the Dutch
Winkler Prins encyclopedia.
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Encarta 1996 with many Windows open including an atlas, an article and the pinpointer |
Following
the first multimedia encyclopedia,
Microsoft initiated
Encarta by purchasing non-exclusive rights to the
Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, incorporating it into its first edition in
1993 (Funk and Wagnalls continued to publish revised editions for several years independently of Encarta, but then ceased printing in the late 1990s). Microsoft had originally approached
Encyclopædia Britannica in the 1980s, but Britannica, believing its print media sales would remain strong, declined.
Encyclopædia Britannica, the gold standard of encyclopedias for over a century, was forced to sell the company at below book value in 1996 when its print sales could no longer compete with
Encarta and the Microsoft distribution channel which gave away free copies with computer systems.
In the late 1990s, Microsoft bought
Collier's Encyclopedia and
New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia from
Macmillan and incorporated them into
Encarta. Thus the current Microsoft
Encarta can be considered the successor of the
Funk and Wagnalls,
Collier, and
New Merit Scholar encyclopedias. None of these formerly successful encyclopedias are still in print, being unable to adapt to the new market dynamics of electronic encyclopedias.
Microsoft has introduced several regional versions of
Encarta, but some of them have been discontinued. For example, the
Brazilian version was introduced in 1999 and suspended in 2002.
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Encarta's Visual Browser |
Its standard edition
[Microsoft Encarta Product Details] includes approximately 50,000 articles, with additional images, videos and sounds. The premium editions contain approximately 68,000 articles and other multimedia content, such as 25,000 pictures and illustrations, over 300 videos and animations, and an interactive atlas with 1.8 million locations. Its articles are integrated with multimedia content and may have a collection of links to
websites selected by its
editors. A sidebar may display alternative views or original materials relevant to the topic.
Encarta's Visual Browser, available since the 2004 version, presents a user with a list of related topics. Its multimedia includes virtual 3-dimensional tours of ancient structures, for example the
Acropolis; 2-dimensional panoramic images of world wonders or cities; and a virtual flight program which moves the user over landscape.
Encarta also includes a
trivia game called "MindMaze" in which the player explores a castle by answering questions whose answers could be found in the encyclopedia's articles.
For years,
Encarta came in three primary software flavors: Basic, Premium, and Reference Library (price and features in that order.) Beginning in 2005, however, Microsoft added
Microsoft Student as the premier Microsoft educational software program, bundling Encarta with graphing calculator software and templates for
Microsoft Office. In addition, the Reference Library was discontinued, absorbed into a newer, more comprehensive Premium package.
World Atlas
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Encarta's dynamically generated globe |
The dynamic maps are generated with the same engine that powered
Microsoft MapPoint software. The map is a
virtual globe that one can freely rotate and magnify to any location down to major streets for big cities. The globe has multiple surfaces displaying political boundaries, physical landmarks, and statistical information. One can selectively display different sized cities, various geological or man-made features and
reference lines in a map.
The maps contain
hyperlinks to related articles ("Map Trek") and also supports a "Dynamic Sensor" that provides the
latitude,
longitude,
place name,
population and
local time for any point on the globe. Encarta also generates a visible-light moon atlas with names of major
craters and hyperlinks. However, it does not include a
planetarium.
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Options for level of detail on maps. |
In addition to database generated maps, many other illustrative maps in
Encarta ("Historical Maps") are drawn by artists. Some more advanced maps are
interactive, for example, the large African map for Africana can display information such as political boundaries or the distribution of African
flora.
Encarta Dictionary
When
Encarta was released as part of the "Reference Suite" in 1998 (through to 2000), Microsoft bundled "Microsoft Bookshelf" with the other three programs (Encarta Encyclopedia 98 Deluxe Edition, Encarta Virtual Globe '98, and Encarta Research Organizer). However, this was problematic.
Microsoft Bookshelf (Reference Edition) already contained "Encarta Desk Encyclopedia" and "Encarta Desk Atlas", thus becoming redundant with the full editions provided as part of the suite.
In later editions (Encarta Suite 2000 and onwards) Bookshelf was replaced with a dedicated Encarta Dictionary, a superset of the printed edition.
There has been some controversy over the decision, since the dictionary lacks the other books provided in Bookshelf which many found to be a useful reference, such as
Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (replaced with a quotations section in Encarta that links to relevant articles and people) and an
Internet Directory (although now a
moot point since many of the sites listed in offline directories aren't around anymore).
Before the emergence of the internet for information browsing, Microsoft recognized the importance of having an engine that supported a multimedia markup language, full text search, and extensibility using software objects. The hypertext display, hyperlinking and search software was created by a team of CD-ROM Division developers in the late 1980's who designed it as a generalized engine for uses as diverse as
interactive help,
document management systems and as ambitious as a multimedia encyclopedia.
Encarta was able to use of various Microsoft technologies because it was extensible with
software components for displaying unique types of multimedia information. For example, a snap in map engine is adapted from its MapPoint software. More information on the hypertext and search engine used by Encarta may be found in the
Microsoft Bookshelf article.
Unlike
Microsoft Office, Encarta software only supports
Microsoft Windows with Microsoft's
Internet Explorer. Encarta 98 was the last version to be released for the Macintosh. However, an
Apple Macintosh or
Linux/
Unix user with Internet connection may still access Encarta's website.
Encarta uses database technologies to generate much of its multimedia content. For example, Encarta generates each zoomable map from a global
geographic information system database on demand.
When a user uses the
copy and paste function of Microsoft Windows on
Encarta on more than five words,
Encarta automatically appends a
copyright boilerplate message after the paste.
Early in 2005, the online
Encarta started to allow users to suggest changes to existing articles.
[Microsoft Encarta Adopting Wikiesque Process, Slashdot.org, April 8, 2005, accessed May 26, 2006]Articles are not immediately updated. Instead, user feedback is submitted to
Encarta's editors for review, copyediting, and approval.
[About Editing Articles in Encarta, MSN.com, accessed May 26, 2006] Contributors are also not credited for their submissions.
[Encarta Terms of Use (including transfer of rights to Microsoft), MSN.com, accessed May 26, 2006]Encarta's content is accessible using a conversational interface on
MSN Messenger via the MSN
Bot "Encarta Instant Answers"
[MSN screenname: encarta@conversagent.com and encarta@botmetro.net]. The bot can answer many encyclopedia related questions directly in the IM window. It uses short sentences from the Encarta website, and sometimes displays full articles in the
Internet Explorer-based browser on the right. This service is also available in
German[MSN screenname: de.encarta@botmetro.net],
Spanish[MSN screenname: es.encarta@botmetro.net],
French[MSN screenname: fr.encarta@botmetro.net] and
Japanese[MSN screenname: jp.encarta@botmetro.net].
Criticism of the encyclopedia has focused on some articles being slow to be updated. For example, an early 2005 edition of the article about the
political philosopher John Rawls opens with
"Rawls, John (1921- )", although he had died on
November 24,
2002.
Encarta failed to note the date of his passing until
April 2005.
Some critics dismiss
Encarta as having neither the breadth, depth and authoritative contributors of other prominent encyclopedias such as the
Encyclopædia Britannica, and Wikipedia users criticize it for not having the currency or open participatory nature of
Wikipedia (see also
Criticism of Wikipedia). Criticism has been leveled on Encarta's decision to accept users' editions of the articles to be submitted for approval, a move that is widely seen as a reaction to the success of collaborative projects such as Wikipedia in particular.
Robert McHenry, while Editor-in-Chief of the
Encyclopædia Britannica, criticized
["The Microsoft Way", essay by Robert McHenry] Encarta for differences in factual content between national versions of
Encarta, accusing Microsoft of "pandering to local prejudices" instead of presenting subjects objectively
[Página 12 Si la historia la escribe Microsoft, quiere decir que hay otra historia ]. An article that seems to be written by
Bill Gates addressed the nature of writing Encyclopedia for different regions.
["The facts depend on where you are coming from", essay by Bill Gates reprinted in The Sunday Times of South Africa, April 6, 1997, accessed May 26, 2006.]
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List of encyclopedias*
MSN Encarta Online — with limited free access and features.
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Microsoft Encarta product*
History and some other information about Encarta by Microsoft*
Encarta SupportZone A website run by Stephen Stakey, a Microsoft MVP for MSN Encarta, that gives support and tips for Encarta users.
*
Review of Microsoft Encarta Africana A review by Dr.
Molefi Kete Asante, Professor, Department of African American Studies, Temple University, Philadelphia
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To wire or not to wire? Encyclopædia Britannica vs. Microsoft Encarta A comparison of the two encyclopedias, by Panagiota Alevizou, published by the
Educational Technology & Society journal
