German Wikipedia DVD sells out first 10,000-copy run

April 11, 2005 Directmedia Publishing, a German publishing house founded in 1995 that specializes in digital media, announced the release of a DVD of the German Wikipedia earlier this week. The DVD may be purchased online (via sites like Amazon.de) for around 10 Euros, and a free download of the DVD image will be available in a few days for those who prefer to burn their own copies. The DVD includes built-in software, DigiBib, for browsing and searching through its content.

This new project follows the successful publication of a German Wikipedia CD last October, which distributed over 10,000 physical copies and saw over 100,000 downloads of the CD image. Directmedia worked with Wikipedia editors over the months leading up to the release to finalize and update the DVD content, hosting a tagging party at their headquarters in Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany.

The announcement of the release came on April 6, five days after the DVD was first available for online purchase. By the end of the next day, the DVD was the best-selling software package on Amazon.

By April 9, all 10,000 copies of the DVD's first production run had been sold or shipped to resellers. Another production of 10,000 copies is scheduled for April 13th. The complete DVD image should be available for free download in a few more days; the project page on the German Wikipedia will be updated as soon as the image is available.