In Russia, create an "objective" online encyclopedia instead of Wikipedia

The building of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Boris N. Yeltsin Presidential Library, photo: Yury Belinsky / ITAR-TASS

The Russian Federation continues to work on the development of local (controlled) clones of foreign projects. Earlier it was reported about the creation of clones of YouTube, Netflix, the development of a national search engine and its operating system. None of these projects has been implemented, but there are no less ambitions because of this, just as the desire to “drank” state money.

The Presidential and Russian National Libraries have been developing a project to create a national Internet encyclopedia for half a year already. It should be an alternative to Wikipedia, which, according to librarians, contains many inaccuracies and biased data.
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The start of the project was reported in April 2014. Then the initiative was made by the general director of the Russian National Library, Anton Likhomanov. “The largest national libraries of Russia could think about creating their own information encyclopedic resource,” he said. He was supported by the Director General of the Presidential Library of the Russian Federation Alexander Vershinin.

And the work began to boil.

More than 50,000 books and archival documents from 27 libraries of Russian regions have been transferred to the Presidential Library, which will be used to form the resource, the library’s press service said today. “The materials became the basis of the regional electronic encyclopedia created by the Presidential Library in cooperation with the Russian National Library (NLR). Thus, the creation of an alternative to Wikipedia has begun - an analysis of this resource has shown that it is not able to inform in detail and reliably about the Russian regions, the life of the country, ”the press service noted.

The technical parameters of the new Russian reference resource are still being refined, the ITAR-TASS agency reports, but it has already been decided that the encyclopedia will be available simultaneously on the websites of the Presidential Library and the NLR. The basis of the electronic directory will make the documents relating to the Russian territory. Subjects of the Russian Federation are connected to the collection of materials. They are invited to submit their regional encyclopedias about the development of regions, districts, cities and villages to a new resource.

“The posted materials will be open for permanent replenishment and updating, available to users from any point of Internet access. As expected, the regional e-encyclopedia will become one of the most sought-after resources of the Runet, the press service of the Presidential Library said. “The integration of unique materials about the regions into a single electronic encyclopedia will allow objectively and accurately show the country and its population, the diversity of the state, national structure of Russia.”

PS in some forums, readers aptly noticed that Russia already has its own encyclopedia - Lurkmore.to.