The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Lately I've become interested in the number of projects on the Internet that are being produced by huge communities of people. As much as everyone hates working in committees, and as much as we feel that they never accomplish anything, the number of superior projects being completed by groups of people around the globe is dramatically growing. The most well known undertakings are the open source software projects such as Linux and Open Office. This suite, which I have promoted here before, is just as good as Microsoft Office, and available as a free, legal download on the web, the price can't be beat. Huge projects, growing and changing all the time, and best of all, being modified by groups around the globe to meet whatever needs they feel are most needed in their area. But what is really growing online are projects to make all types of resources available. Wikipedia is a perfect example. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can use, but more interestingly, that anyone can contribute to. A recent study comparing Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica found little difference in the depth or the facts available in each of these resources, but what was found was a drastic difference in the speed that new entries are published. Surf to Wikipedia and look up almost any topic, even something currently in the news, and the it is quite likely that an entry has at least been started on the topic. That is part of the interesting thing about Wikipedia, entries grow over time, are revised and changed as new facts come to light, and are revised again by others. Entries are constantly changing, and anyone can work on them. Their website even has a section called the sandbox where people are encouraged to try out a piece of writing and practice working on entries. The Internet Movie Archive and Project Gutenberg are two more perfect examples of work like this. If you are searching for film clips on almost anything, including the public service videos from the U.S. during the 50s shown to schoolchildren, teaching them to hide under their desks in case of nuclear attack, you can find them here. Project Gutenberg makes publicly available thousands of books on almost any topic for free download. Once again, everyone is encouraged to take responsibility for adding a book, or a video clip to the collection. One book may not seem like much, but tens of thousands have been added over the last several years and now a massive database has grown and is publicly available. I'm also getting addicted to weblogs. I've set up an RSS feed at bloglines.com which downloads all of the blogs I was checking daily to a central account. This way I've only got to check one place and I can see which of them has been updated since the last time I checked. Many of the blogs are also global community property. Sites such as slashdot.org, kuro5hin.org, and even Spymac have thousands of dedicated users who logon constantly throughout the day adding all types of information. The whole point is that sites like this allow us to be part of a global community with others who share our interests and our concerns. Logon, logout, contribute what you want, and be a part of something bigger than yourself. ([email protected])
