Man-Auto-Encyclopaedia

Introduction

In a major undertaking, the Department of Anthropology of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, in collaboration with scholars from other universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, has launched an ambitious research project, the first-ever online interactive Man-Auto-Encyclopaedia (about the relationship between man and car – the social and cultural behavioural patterns based on this relationship are thus a challenging topic for holistic study). Conceptually, it is – to some extent – akin to the well-known Wikipedia, the largest and most popular general reference work on the internet, or rather its predecessor, Nupedia, in that it is a web-based, collaborative, free content, interactive and frequently updated resource open to anyone. These similarities apart, it distinguishes itself by several unique features. In particular, a devoted cadre of eminent specialists in their respective fields, touching upon anthropology, the science of man or the study of humanity, as well as an scientific board assisted by consultants and peer-reviewers will guarantee the validity of its scholarly content and academic eminence of individual entries, which will be periodically revised and updated to reflect the progress in scientific knowledge. Moreover, in contradistinction to established technical encyclopaedias available on the internet (eg. Autopedia. The Automotive Encyclopedia, http://autopedia.com, or the Czech “guide through the automotive world”, http://autoencyklopedie.cz), the envisaged “auto-anthropopaedia” broadens the scope of enquiry by adding a human (anthropological) dimension (which still supports the Encyclopaedia of Anthropology, http://is.muni.cz/do/sci/UAntrBiol/el/encyklopedie/index.html) and presents alphabetically arranged entries enabling easy orientation in the topic. Though the basic edition of the web encyclopaedia in spe will be in Czech, other language editions can be visualized, depending on the cadre of potential contributors and/or translators.