Is it really the Encyclopedia Britannica as we might of thought?

It would have helped enormously in creating proper expectations, if the Comptons derivation had been part of the narrative from the outset.

What is comptons?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton's_Encyclopedia

I plan to address some of the other concerns first thing in the morning.

I perhaps should wait but this seemed a prime example:

Foucault, Michel

(1926–84). French structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers. He studied in Paris under Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and later taught at the University of Clermont-Ferrand from 1960 to 1968 and the Collège de France from 1970 to 1984. His early work concerned the history of mental illness and society’s response to it. Madness and Civilization (1961) is a study of society’s use of the concept of madness in the 17th century. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) is an examination of the origins of the modern penal system. His books argue that asylums and prisons are society’s devices for exclusion and that by surveying social attitudes toward these institutions, one can examine the development and uses of power.

“Foucault, Michel,” Encyclopedia Britannica Noet Edition (Chicago, IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015).

This is an embarrassing short article on a very important 20th century figure from the humanities, it is extremely short compared to the wikipedia preamble pasted below.

Michel Foucault (French: [miʃɛl fuko]; born Paul-Michel Foucault) (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, philologist and literary critic. His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels, preferring to present his thought as a critical history of modernity. His thought has been highly influential both for academic and for activist groups, such as within post-anarchism.^[2]

Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV and then at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness. After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, he produced two more significant publications, The Birth of the Clinic and The Order of Things, which displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, a theoretical movement in social anthropology from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called "archaeology".

From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. In 1970 he was admitted to the Collège de France, membership of which he retained until his death. He also became active in a number of left-wing groups involved in anti-racist campaigns, anti-human rights abuses movements, and the struggle for penal reform. He went on to publish The Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality. In these books he developed archaeological and genealogical methods which emphasized the role which power plays in the evolution of discourse in society. Foucault died in Paris of neurological problems compounded by HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from the disease, and his partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory.

-Dan

Hi Ben.

I would like to know why some of the articles do not seem to be cross-referenced. Where I am concerned, as are others, about the level of detail within the articles, I am also concerned about its usability as a logos resource.

For example:

Abbado, Claudio

(1933–2014). Italian-born orchestra conductor Claudio Abbado succeeded André Previn in 1979 as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), a group he had  ...

 Encyclopedia Britannica Noet Edition, 2015.

This snippet refers to Andre Previn. Previn also has an entry in the encyclopedia, and yet this reference is not hyper-linked to that entry. I could not simply click on Andre's name and go there, nor hover to see the article quickly. The very next article, 'Abbas,  Mahmoud' talks about the PLO. Again, the PLO have an entry but it is not linked.

I saw a thread mentioning that full integration with the timeline tool had not happened yet ... Is this linking/tagging also a WIP, or is this how we would expected the resource to work ?

Thanks.

I just tested 10 randomly chosen articles on the Britannica website. The articles I got from Comptons all matched the content of EBNE:

• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9344864/Albany-Law-School
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9273203/Bhutan
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9318970/Giovanni-Benedetto-Castiglione
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9310783/Columba
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9311080/Robert-S-Duncanson
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9274428/Fredericton
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9274957/housing
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9275099/Islamic-literature
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9315044/Jerry-Lee-Lewis
• http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9329405/Bob-Mathias

As others have said the only difference is that the Noet edition has less media and fewer links (see that Castiglione and Duncanson articles for examples).

I simply do not understand why Faithlife has allowed this to happen. The content is clearly written for children, not for adults. The selection of articles clearly does not have Noet users in view.

If this product had been called Encyclopaedia Britannica for Teens (Logos Edition), or Comptons by Britannica, Logos Edition there would have been very few complaints (apart from the missing links). I'm afraid it's yet another case of Logos marketing significantly overblowing a new product to the point that many purchasers feel there has been misrepresentation. That harms Faithlife and the trust you work so hard to build up.

Even if you'd got carried away with the excitement of the initial marketing push, there was plenty of discussion about the content throughout the prepub period. Faithlife staff members were fully involved in that discussion, and had ample opportunity to mention the level of the articles and the link with Comptons. As someone else has said, the failure to do that now seems like smoke and mirrors.

We can buy Comptons for pennies. Of course the Logos edition has added value. From the marketing page: "Look up “John Calvin” in EBNE, find a reference to The Institutes, and with a click you’re taken straight to its full text." Really?

I know I can return the product and get my $100 back. I'll probably do that. But it will take longer to get my trust back.

I didnt know I was preordering kids encyclopedia for $ 199.00

I knew Faithlife would make this right!

Thanks for helping us understand what happened and giving clear and excellent options from which to choose!

I thought they would too...it is a sad thing this mistake happened but I had always known that a refund was the worse case scenario (which is not terrible). I am very happy to hear that things are being corrected. I am content to wait and as a bonus compton may be seen to be an equivalent of strongs dictionary, a base resource to get a supper quick look at something.

-Dan

Just to confirm and be double clear. No more money from me, and I will recieve the Encyclopedia Britannica when it's completed, while still keeping the Compton's version?

Correct.

The TBD makes me nervous (based on what just happened); but otherwise I can't complain.

There may be some number of people who pre-ordered at $99 before the prepub price went up to $199, but have since asked for a refund. If the next pre-pub price is going to be more than $99 you may want to add some provision so that they can still get the new bundle for $99.

That would be me.

Though it would still be nice to know how many articles are going to be in the new EB, before I commit to re-ordering.

Thank you Phil. That apology and fix is certainly good enough for me. I particularly appreciate the clear explanation.

Glad to hear it.

I'm sure you're already doing this, but you'll want to review your procedures to try and make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Absolutely. We've already discussed steps we can take to make sure this doesn't happen again. One of the main causes was that this was an out-of-the-ordinary product. Normally what we create has a very clear print correspondence. That wasn't the case here. And the confusion between Encyclopaedia Britannica the company, Encyclopedia Britannica the resource, and the mid-range encyclopedia they were licensing to us led to the conflation and confusion.

There may be some number of people who pre-ordered at $99 before the prepub price went up to $199, but have since asked for a refund. If the next pre-pub price is going to be more than $99 you may want to add some provision so that they can still get the new bundle for $99.

We will honor the original Pre-Pub price for those who have canceled already.

Steve,

That presupposes that the team that built the product actually read the marketing information. I don't think that happened in this case. 

What Happened

Encyclopaedia Britannica (the company) has three different encyclopedia databases:

1. Encyclopedia Britannica: contains ~80,000 articles and has over 40,000,000 words; aimed at the scholarly market
2. Compton's Encyclopedia: contains ~19,000 articles and has over 8,000,000 words; aimed at the family market
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, Student Edition: contains ~5,000 articles and has ~2,000,000 words; aimed at the student market

What we received from Encyclopaedia Britannica and delivered to you was #2.

It should have been obvious something was wrong during the creation of the EBNE when there was such a vast difference in the number of image which were built into EBNE (you actually added only 2,234 images out of 25,000 images). Even with your company's silo structure, the builders would have noticed the discrepancy in the image count.

Indeed. This resource can perhaps serve as a case study for FL internal evaluation of the marketing and build processes. Potential users need more (and more accurate) pre-shipment information than we had in this case, and Faithlife needs to exercise more oversight and quality control pre-release than exercised in this case.  The shipped Compton's (with its relative lack of tagging, even TOC items) was essentially a Vryso ebook; this was certainly not the original intention. We're with you, FL - but please do not settle for incomplete development of the features that make these resources useful!

Grace and peace. <>< 

It should have been obvious something was wrong during the creation of the EBNE when there was such a vast difference in the number of image which were built into EBNE (you actually added only 2,234 images out of 25,000 images). Even with your company's silo structure, the builders would have noticed the discrepancy in the image count.

So i am still puzzled on what really happened at FL when this product was built and released. i cannot imagine someone at FL didn't notice the vast differences in images before the release.

Communication breakdowns are common in large companies. I can see how this snafu was a result of Faithlife's rapid growth. I think it will serve as a learning experience. I am happy Faithlife is responding pro-actively with a generous solution.

Even with this explanation something seems odd.

On your product webpage, it says that there should be:

1. more than 20,000 photos
2. over 2,000 art images
3. 1,567 maps
4. 279 flags
5. 689 videos
6. (EBNE) includes more than 25,000 images

But a search of what i received as EBNE shows:  (search done with the Logos6 Search tool using Media search)

1. 682 Photos
2. 750 Maps
3. 249 Videos
4. All images combined = 2,234  (search for All images in EBNE)
    
         

It should have been obvious something was wrong during the creation of the EBNE when there was such a vast difference in the number of image which were built into EBNE (you actually added only 2,234 images out of 25,000 images). Even with your company's silo structure, the builders would have noticed the discrepancy in the image count.

So i am still puzzled on what really happened at FL when this product was built and released. i cannot imagine someone at FL didn't notice the vast differences in images before the release. (some 22,000+ images missing)

The best I can tell from talking to their team and reading back through past email correspondence, someone from there team gave us the 25,000 number. Our team trusted that it was accurate and didn't verify it with the team that produced the product. What seems to have happened—and I'm speculating—is that this individual neglected to take into consideration that EB doesn't have sub-licensing rights on all their media and was able to include only the media owned by them. So we got 100% of the media that they can give us, but not 100% of the media they have. We'll do our best to include as much media as we can from Encyclopedia Britannica, along with the media we delivered with Compton's. We'll make sure the updated page has accurate counts of articles, media, etc. I'm sorry for this inaccuracy.

i am also disappointed at the resolution of images that came with EBNE. They are really low resolution images (see example below) and many are blurry and unreadable. Even when printing these images they are still low resolution. i was hoping that the images would be a higher resolution so that they may be viewed in Factbook or at least printed and viewed at full (higher) resolution.

We'll check to see if they have higher resolution images that we can use.