Wikipedia... the printed copy?

May 11, 2010

What? A book creator app on Wikipedia?

With the book creator you can create a book containing wiki pages of your choice. You can export the book in different formats (for example PDF or ODF) or order a printed copy.

Apparently it's been available on non-English Wikipedias for a while, but now it's open to everyone. Part of me scoffs, What is the point of a printed book when Wikipedia was created for the web? Isn't the point of wikis to get lost clicking link after link? Printing a Wikipedia page is like trapping a butterfly under a glass bell. But the other half of me finds this conflation of the Old and the New exciting and weird and kind of funky.