Lindsay Pereira

Some people build their own websites. Others let their users build it for them. At a certain level, this makes sense, considering the Internet was built to share and transfer information. And, if you know something, why not tell the world about it?

Start blabbering at the DMOZ Open Directory Project, whose sole purpose is to produce 'the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors.' It almost manages too, if the planning is anything to go by. Firstly, the site exhorts net-citizens to each organise a small portion of the Internet and then present it back to the rest of the planet. The groups of people handling each section separate wheat from chaff, keeping only what they think is worth a peek. Since this is a consensus of sorts we're talking about, all content is untainted by personal biases.

The Open Directory calls itself a 'self-regulating republic' where experts can sign up, choose a topic they're comfortable with, and start editing categories using the site's software tools. Do it well, and get popular with the people who log in. Do it badly and, hey, they may just find your email address somehow...

On a similar note, but bigger, is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an unconventional guide to life, the universe and just about everything. Registration as a researcher is free, and enables you to contribute, create your own Guide Entries, and get a personal page where you can keep track of all conversations you choose to join. Add to these incentives the ability to meet other researchers for a chat, or customise your page to suit your tastes, and you can believe why the site is so popular.

Closer to home is Sulekha, which boasts nearly a thousand contributors from over 50 countries. Of the more than 175,000 pages of content the site has, ninety per cent comes from members. So what does this online Indian community offer? Take your pick from discussions, clubs, photographs, articles, opinions, columns, cartoons, reviews, ratings, website recommendations and more. The best part, apart from the fun, is that volunteer editors and directors actually contribute a total of Rs. 135,000 per year (in honorariums from Sulekha) to Indian charities of their choice.

'Recycling the web in real time' is Plastic, a model for news. How it works is by bringing about a live collaboration between the web's smartest readers and its smartest editors. Once that happens, assuming it does, what a visitor gets are pages of news, rumours, humour, opinions, stories, movie review, games, music, anecdotes and more.

Last stop: Everything2 which, to be honest, is confusing. What else can you call a site that tries to have, well, everything? As an online community of users, it is undoubtedly complex, and focuses on 'writing, publishing and editing a quality database of information, insight and humour.' Once a visitor signs up and creates an account, he or she become part of a team, and a community with its very own culture. From then on, you are allowed to do just about anything you wish to. 'Node' anything to the site, whether it is your personal diary, notes on your sibling's husband, your music collection, or a recipe for chicken chettinad. If you have nothing to add, however, you can always recommend changes, or just read what others have written.

Where does it go from here? In the words of an editor at the site: 'Everything is an ever-growing, pulsating database that moves through cyberspace like a death-borg...slowly collecting and assimilating information and nonsense until...until...Until it knows all.'

Will it succeed? It just might.

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