Wikipedia, Printed

2,559 of Wikipedia’s best articles are ‘featured articles’.
It’s these that Rob Matthews decided to press ‘cntrl + p’ on and print out (probably at work).  The result is this weighty tome of some 5000 pages.
I believe his piece was to convey that it is only through computers that this amount of information becomes palatable, searchable and essentially useful.

The sheer volume of information stored on Wikipedia is massive. A text based archive of the English version takes up 2.5GB and if you include images, that number jumps to over 78GB.

If you were to print out the whole thing (not just the featured articles), this is what it would look like based on volumes 25cm high and 5cm thick (some 400 leaves), each page having two columns, each columns having 80 rows, and each row having 50 characters.

And this is what it would contain:

rob matthews via manystuff
other images via Wikipedia

Share


More Jam:

I heart Hobnox – free beat making online
Hobnox "is an online entertainment and publishing platform, a network for creatives and their fans. We...
 The Konami Code
What do Gradius, Tetris and Ninja Turtles have in common with Facebook and Digg? 1. They've...
 Remix Space Oddity; that’s pretty freaky, Bowie
David Bowie's going to be rereleasing his tune "Space Oddity" to mark the 40th anniversary of the moon...
 Down at the lake – Amy Bennett
We've got a bit of a thing for tilt-shift at Jam, and Amy Bennett's work is in the vein. Amy builds...

posted: June 6th, 2009 | by: Tom | perma: link | tags: , , , | 32 Comments »

32 Comments on “Wikipedia, Printed”

  1. #1 nina said at 7:08 pm on June 7th, 2009:

    really? really? hahaha what the crap this is amazing i want this book. i want this so badly. its so cool

  2. #2 Al said at 9:38 pm on June 7th, 2009:

    I seriously hope this is a joke. What a waste of paper – and to prove something we already know?

  3. #3 eb carrier said at 9:40 pm on June 7th, 2009:

    this would make a great pedestal for my laptop as surf wiki articles.

  4. #4 alex said at 10:09 pm on June 7th, 2009:

    big waste of paper.

  5. #5 Andrew said at 10:35 pm on June 7th, 2009:

    Very cool – it’s easy to forget what makes Wikipedia so impressive. 2.5GB of data doesn’t really put the sheer volume of data in perspective!

  6. #6 Thanks for Participating | Taylor Dahlin’s web home said at 2:32 am on June 8th, 2009:

    [...] (via) Tags: books, rob-matthews, technology, [...]

  7. #7 Reference This said at 4:58 am on June 8th, 2009:

    The twenty-volume, unabridged Oxford English Dictionary is larger and contains fewer spelling mistakes.

  8. #8 links for 2009-06-07 « Mandarine said at 5:09 am on June 8th, 2009:

    [...] Wikipedia, Printed | Spreading Jam 2,559 of Wikipedia’s best articles are ‘featured articles’. It’s these that Rob Matthews decided to press ‘cntrl + p’ on and print out (probably at work). The result is this weighty tome of some 5000 pages. (tags: wikipedia) [...]

  9. #9 Duck said at 9:29 am on June 8th, 2009:

    wow what a waste of paper seriously i mean what have you achieved by printing all that out. “i can put this into perspective” what a waste of paper

  10. #10 Anachronist said at 11:57 am on June 8th, 2009:

    Why would this be a waste of paper? If you made something of the same size out of wood, would anyone complain about the waste?
    The humor of just printing it so you can use it like a classic encyclopedia is lost on most people here. Some things have to be done just because you can. It’s important.

  11. #11 Scott said at 4:30 pm on June 8th, 2009:

    Were this to be split up and alphabetized like it should be, it would just be a stack of books matching the impressiveness of a stack of Encyclopedias.

    I think this project missed it’s original intent and just shows how much we’ve forgotten about non-digital media. Take the covers off of A-Z encyclopedies, pile the papers and tada! It’s humorous that creators find it impressive and/or surprising.

    Go to a library.

  12. #12 Aaron said at 5:06 pm on June 8th, 2009:

    A waste of paper? Imagining the volume of a book is one thing, but to actually create it is a whole other thing. My guess is that no one has seen a book this large, which makes it all the more interesting seeing as how something completely mundane, yet useful, is transformed into a surreal and useless object that isn’t all that functional. Well done Rob Mathews. Well stated Anachronist.

  13. #13 Wikipedia Sucks said at 5:28 pm on June 8th, 2009:

    Funny.
    Love the breakdown of what Wikipedia contains. Think you missed out “bitching” in the talk sections though…

  14. #14 good morning. can i interest you in purchasing a wikipedia homeset? « palms and lights said at 7:42 pm on June 8th, 2009:

    [...] See more, including a breakdown of how to categorize a wikipedia library (some categories, “[citation needed]” “disinformation inserted by the CIA” and “Pokemon characters”,  at spreadingjam.com [...]

  15. #15 uxia said at 8:13 pm on June 8th, 2009:

    I like how you all LOL @ waste of paper. How many of you truly recycle all your paper waste, plastic waste, aluminum waste. How many of you would have KNOWN what it looks like. How many of you support non resource saavy expeditions throughout your existence?? Like cmon seriously, dont knock this guy cause he has a few hundred to burn on printing out wikipedia and you think you are cooler…

  16. #16 Angela said at 1:30 pm on June 9th, 2009:

    I just can’t get over the skinny jeans he’s wearing..

  17. #17 Seth said at 1:38 pm on June 9th, 2009:

    You think those are skinny jeans? You should come and meet the Jam team, they can certainly give him a run for his money.

  18. #18 mark said at 1:55 pm on June 9th, 2009:

    I suspect all you in the “waste of paper” crowd are blissfully unaware that for the majority of human history, encyclopedias were at LEAST this big, and printed many thousands of times. Wikipedia has, in many instances, rendered the printed encyclopedia obsolete in most households, thereby saving “trees” or whatever it is you guys are on about.

    Complaining about the amount of paper equivalent to a kitchen stool is a “waste of time and energy”

  19. #19 The Daily Dairy: Calcium Fortified News And Junk said at 7:43 pm on June 9th, 2009:

    [...] [SpreadingJam via NOTCOT] [...]

  20. #20 Printed Wikipedia by Rob Matthews » Post » whats wrong with the zoo said at 8:04 pm on June 10th, 2009:

    [...] via Rob Matthews via Jam Related [...]

  21. #21 Druckfrisch: Wikipedia by Rob Matthews » Beitrag » whats wrong with the zoo said at 8:07 pm on June 10th, 2009:

    [...] via Rob Matthews via Jam Ähnliche [...]

  22. #22 Joop said at 10:52 pm on June 10th, 2009:

    Cool idea. Very inspiring.

  23. #23 links for 2009-06-11 « Francis Anderson said at 2:03 am on June 12th, 2009:

    [...] Wikipedia, Printed Rob Matthews has created a hefty physical version of Wikipedia’s featured articles. The 2,559 digital articles have been transformed into a massive, 5,000 page hardbound book that looks to be around 2 feet tall. Thoroughly impractical, the project also involves a huge waste of paper. Ho hum. (tags: wikipedia design humor interesting art print printing cool) [...]

  24. #24 Rob Matthews druckt Wikipedia aus … | ACTIONBORED said at 9:54 pm on June 12th, 2009:

    [...] Mehr dazu auf spreadingjam.com [...]

  25. #25 If Wikipedia were printed « how rad said at 2:51 pm on June 16th, 2009:

    [...] spreadingjam.com [...]

  26. #26 James said at 10:57 am on June 21st, 2009:

    Paper IS a RENEWABLE source. Higher demand for paper = a higher demand for new trees! which = oxygen! Do waste of paper people have a problem with more OXYGEN?

    “Waste” away my friend! I’m siding with the looks cool but a waste of money crowed.

  27. #27 mental_floss Blog » Morning Cup of Links: Hospital Food Around the World said at 4:28 pm on June 22nd, 2009:

    [...] the appetite a bit. * Someone decided to print out nearly 2,600 Wikipedia articles, and bind them into a book. Somebody also needs a hobby. * You probably know where the tallest statue in the US is located. [...]

  28. #28 Kan man stole på den danske Wikipedia? said at 9:21 pm on June 22nd, 2009:

    [...] mig henvise til en mere visuel forklaring på denne problematik som jeg stødte på forleden (på Spreading Jam via [...]

  29. #29 Art said at 1:53 am on June 28th, 2009:

    well…considering people CAN change the info on wikipedia….this IS a waste of paper….unless someone goes through the whole thing and makes sure EVERYTHING is correct.

  30. #30 Niri said at 12:02 am on July 1st, 2009:

    “bush is teh gay LOL”

    Ha ha.

  31. #31 PRINTERESTING · All of the Articles, None of the Hyperlinks said at 4:04 pm on August 6th, 2009:

    [...] e v e r y o n [...]

  32. #32 |X|  Wikipedia:Dresden said at 2:51 pm on August 24th, 2009:

    [...] Benutzer:PaulAE über Titan A.E. zum Wälzer, der alle featured articles der englischen Wikipedia in EINEM Buch versammelt. Ein erster Ausflug in Richtung Urheberrechte führte zu der Frage nach [...]

Leave a Reply