Microsoft Encarta
Encarta 2008 Premium on Windows Vista
Developed by	Microsoft
Latest release	Encarta Premium 2008 / June 26, 2007
OS	Microsoft Windows
Genre	Virtual encyclopedia
License	Proprietary
Website	www.microsoft.com/encarta

Encarta is a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations and also differing denotations An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages A digital system uses discrete (discontinuous values usually but not always Symbolized Numerically (hence called "digital" to represent information for Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms. An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer 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 DVD-ROM or multiple CD-ROMs. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Many articles can also be viewed online free of charge, a service supported by advertisements. ^[1]

Microsoft publishes similar encyclopedias under the Encarta trademark in various languages, including German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Localized versions may contain contents licensed from available national sources and may contain more or less content than the full English version. In Computing, Internationalization and localization (also spelled internationalisation and localisation, see spelling differences) are means of adapting For example, the Dutch version has content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia. The Winkler Prins is a Dutch Encyclopedia, founded by the Dutch poet and clergyman Anthony Winkler Prins (1817-1908 which ran through

History

Following the first multimedia Academic American Encyclopedia, Microsoft initiated Encarta by purchasing non-exclusive rights to the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, incorporating it into its first edition in 1993. The Academic American Encyclopedia is a multivolume general English-language Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls is a Publisher based in New York City known for its reference works including an Encyclopedia, content from which became a part of (Funk & Wagnalls continued to publish revised editions for several years independently of Encarta, but then ceased printing in the late 1990s. ) Funk & Wagnalls had been a third-tier encyclopedia available at cut rates in grocery stores, where volumes were sold individually as well as in one collected set. The name Encarta was created for Microsoft by an advertising agency, successfully guessing that it sounded better than Funk & Wagnalls. ^[2] Microsoft had originally approached Encyclopædia Britannica, the gold standard of encyclopedias for over a century, in the 1980s, but it declined, believing its print media sales would be hurt; however Encyclopædia Britannica 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. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc ^[3]

In the late 1990s, Microsoft bought Collier's Encyclopedia and New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia from Macmillan and incorporated them into Encarta. Collier's Encyclopedia (full title Collier's Encyclopedia with Bibliography and Index) was a U Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately-held International Publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck 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. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld ^[4] The Spanish version is somewhat smaller than the English one, at 42,000 articles.

In July 2006, Websters Multimedia, a Bellevue, Washington subsidiary of London-based Websters International Publishers, took over maintenance of Encarta from Microsoft. Bellevue ( "BELL-view") is a rapidly growing city in King County, Washington, U ^[5]

In June 2007, Microsoft announced the release of Encarta Premium 2008. ^[6]

Contents

Encarta's Visual Browser

Encarta's standard edition^[7] includes approximately 50,000 articles, with additional images, videos and sounds. The premium editions contain over 60,000 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 website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Editing Language, Images or Sound through correction condensation organization and other modifications in various media 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. Acropolis (Gr akros akron edge extremity + polis city pl acropoleis

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. Trivia (singular trivium) are unimportant (or "trivial" items especially of information

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. Microsoft Student is an application from Microsoft designed to help students in schoolwork and homework Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and In addition, the Reference Library was discontinued, absorbed into a newer, more comprehensive Premium package.

World Atlas

The dynamic maps are generated with the same engine that powered Microsoft MapPoint software. Microsoft MapPoint is both a technology ("MapPoint Web Service" previously known as MapPoint. The map is a virtual globe that one can freely rotate and magnify to any location down to major streets for big cities. A virtual globe is a 3D software model or representation 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. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system.

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. In computing a hyperlink is a Reference or Navigation element in a Document to another Section of the same document or to another Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the Longitude (ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd or ˈlɒŋgɪˌtjuːd symbolized by the Greek character Lambda (λ is the east-west Geographic coordinate measurement Toponymy refers to the scientific study of place-names ( toponyms) their origins meanings use and Typology. In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology Encarta also generates a visible-light moon atlas with names of major craters and hyperlinks. This is a list of craters on the Moon. The large majority of these features are Impact craters The crater nomenclature is governed by the International However, it does not include a planetarium. A planetarium is a Theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about Astronomy and the night sky or for training in Celestial navigation 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. In Botany, flora ( Plural: floras or florae has two meanings The first meaning flora of an area or of time period, refers to all

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. Microsoft Bookshelf was a reference collection introduced in 1987 as part of Microsoft 's extensive work in promoting CD-ROM technology as

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). The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks

Technology

Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 running on Windows XP.

Before the emergence of the world wide web 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 World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. The hypertext display, hyperlinking and search software was created by a team of CD-ROM Division developers in the late 1980s who designed it as a generalized engine for uses as diverse as interactive help, document management systems and as ambitious as a multimedia encyclopedia. Online help is topic-oriented procedural or reference information delivered through Computer software. A document management system (DMS is a Computer system (or set of computer programs used to track and store Electronic documents and/or images of paper Encarta was able to use various Microsoft technologies because it was extensible with software components for displaying unique types of multimedia information. Component-based software engineering (CBSE (also known as Component-Based Development (CBD or Software Componentry) is a branch of the Software engineering 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. Microsoft Bookshelf was a reference collection introduced in 1987 as part of Microsoft 's extensive work in promoting CD-ROM technology as

Unlike Microsoft Office, Encarta software only supports Microsoft Windows with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical 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. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer

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. For a pejorative meaning see Cut and paste job In Human-computer interaction, cut and paste and copy and paste offer Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for Boilerplate is any text that is or can be reused in new contexts or applications without being changed much from the original

User editing of Encarta

Early in 2005, the online Encarta started to allow users to suggest changes to existing articles. ^[8] Articles are not immediately updated. Instead, user feedback is submitted to Encarta's editors for review, copyediting, and approval. ^[9] Contributors are not paid for their submissions. ^[10]

Using Encarta via a chatbot

Encarta's content is accessible using a conversational interface on Windows Live Messenger via the MSN Bot "Encarta Instant Answers". A chatterbot (or chatbot is a type of conversational agent a Computer program designed to simulate an intelligent Conversation with one or more human users Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet ^[11] 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. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical It also can complete simple maths and advanced algebra problems. This service is also available in German,^[12] Spanish,^[13] French^[14] and Japanese. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities ^[15]

Access through Windows Live Search

Users can get two free hours on Encarta by using Microsoft's search engine at Live.com. It is done by searching "Definition: (word)" and accessing a link leading to Encarta Online.

Assessment

Some 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. John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Encarta failed to note the date of his passing until April 2005—about 2½ years after the event.

Robert McHenry, while Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica, criticized^[16] Encarta for differences in factual content between national versions of Encarta, accusing Microsoft of "pandering to local prejudices" instead of presenting subjects objectively. Robert Dale McHenry (born April 30, 1945) is an American editor, Encyclopedist, and Writer. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc ^[17] An article written by Bill Gates addressed the nature of writing encyclopedia for different regions. If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy ^[18]

See also

• Reference software
• List of encyclopedias
• Microsoft Music Central - Music encyclopedia

References

External links

• MSN Encarta Online — with limited free access and features.
• Encarta products
• History and some other information about Encarta by Microsoft
• Official Encarta blog (last posting in March 2006)
• 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