Wikipedia‘s make a book feature PediaPress (not pictured above) has been available to other language Wikipedia’s for some time now, but was only available to logged in users of the English Wikipedia. Now, according to the PediaPress blog, any user can collect pages to be printed in gray scale (color is on its way), bound in soft cover (hardcover is coming soon), and shipped out to them within a surprisingly short time period.
Costs starts at $8.90, and are based on page count. Judging by a quick perusal of the existing PediaPress catalog, the largest book (Complexity and Dynamics) is about 900 pages, and sells for $40.16, while three volume sets on The Beatles, US presidents, and the EU are going for around $90.
But WHY, you ask?
The best application of this that we can see is the one featured in PediaPress’ explanatory video: gift giving. A physical copy of pages related to their new college for a graduating senior, or all the pages about the big new city that a friend is moving to. It’s less likely, but probably not out of the realm of possibility, for teachers to use this to create textbooks on obscure subjects.
Books are printed within two days of being ordered, and ship in about two weeks.
It’s only a matter of time until someone uses this to make a Wikipedia book about Wikipedia or something, causing the Internet to implode.
PediaPress’ video:
(via /.)
Published: May 8, 2010 12:54 pm