Encyclopedia Britannica Invites Public To Help Improve Online Content

The venerable Encyclopedia Britannica's online site Britannica.com is introducing changes to allow for more participation and collaboration from expert contributors and the public:

"Here are the main ones coming next week:"

• "A 'Suggest Edit' button allows a user to edit any section of an article and submit the changes to Britannica’s editors. Edits submitted by readers are suggestions to our editors that must be reviewed and approved by them before they’re posted(...)
• Users whose editorial suggestions are accepted and published entirely or in part will be credited by name in the section of each article that lists contributors. For that reason, people who want to edit articles will be asked to register, providing their first and last names, which will be used to credit them, and an e-mail address where we can contact them with questions and acceptance notices.
• Visitors to the site will now be able to see a list of all people who have contributed to an article, as well as a history of recent changes to it (...) "

More background:

• Encyclopaedia Britannica fights back against Wikipedia (Telegraph, January 22, 2009)
• Britannica 2.0 shows Wikipedia how it's done (Times Online, January 22, 2009)
• DIY Britannica to give Wiki a run for its money (Sydney Morning Herald, January 23, 2009)
• Wikipedia considers limiting user edits (CNET News, January 24, 2009)