Given the vast success of Wikipedia, it still seems odd to me that the 'old' Encyclopedia companies, who understandably had their hats handed to them from 2000-2015 ... haven't really seemed able to even take a real shot at being an alternative. Even the UI to these things still feel clumsy and outdated, made by 'book' people.

The UK gov. uses BBC as a Foreign Policy tool of sorts, I'm surprised they haven't done a similar with with their encyclopedia companies. Socializing them and having some kind of quasi-public editing by 'sanctioned' individuals (i.e. professionals in a field) may yield something usable on the relatively cheap.