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Jimmy Wales explained that by making Wikipedia available off the Web would provide access to millions of people worldwide who do not have access to computers.

'I have always liked the idea of going to print because a big part of what we are about is to disseminate knowledge throughout the world and not just to people who have broadband,' Wales told Reuters, adding that he is talking to several publishers and agents.

Wikipedia is a free, non-profit resource that relies entirely on user contributions for its content and updating. Recently it has come in for criticism that its content is of dubious quality.

In a Gerald Ratner moment, Wales confessed

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that some entries were unsatisfactory after academic Nicholas G Carr described Wikipedia as 'not very good at all'.

'At a factual level it's unreliable, and the writing is often appalling,' he wrote. 'I wouldn't depend on it as a source, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a student writing a research paper.'

Wales agreed that the examples given by Carr were particularly unreliable.

'It is my intention that we aim at Britannica-or-better quality, period, free or non-free,' he replied. 'We should strive to be the best. But the two examples he puts forward are, quite frankly, a horrific embarrassment. '[[Bill Gates]] and [[Jane Fonda]] are nearly unreadable crap.'

Carr's baton was taken up by the Guardian which found shortcomings in other entries, including, somewhat ironically, the entry for encyclopaedias.

Wales is also concerned about the malicious editing of content by 'vandals' or 'pranksters' and said that there would soon be new software in place that would enable new content and edits to be reviewed before going live. He also said that 'stable' versions of some pages may be stored to be referred to alongside the latest edit. However he insisted that there would be no freezing of pages to prevent tampering.

Wikipedia can be found at www.wikipedia.org.