Everything about everything.

Usually they're fun, and even frivilous. And why not? When faced with the opportunity of writing about just about everything, and doing so in an associative fashion that springs from the possibilities inherent in hypertext, why wouldn't people want to play around? And there's some nice serious play going on out there. I'll offer here only two of my favorites:

h2g2 takes it's name from the Douglas Adams classic The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And like it's namesake, it essentially attempts to be everything about everything. As explained in the site:
  h2g2 is an unconventional guide to life, the universe and everything. h2g2 was launched in April 1999, and the BBC took over the running of the site in February 2001 as part of our drive to develop new and innovative online services.

The Guide is written by visitors to the website - people like you - and already it has thousands of entries on all sorts of subjects. The result is a living, breathing guide that's constantly being updated and revised, driven forward by the very people who use it.

h2g2's inspiration comes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the best-selling book by Douglas Adams (who was one of the original founders of the site). Back in 1971, Douglas lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, thinking about the galaxy and how you might find your way around it. His solution, the 'Guide', was an ingenious device that offered advice about almost any place, object, entity or event you might care to name - all at the convenience of your fingertips. This vision is now approaching reality as h2g2 on the Internet.

 

Along similar lines (and most probably taking its name from the same source), Everything2 is ... well, I won't even try. Instead I'll offer two different definitions, both submitted by contributors:

  1. E2 can be a very, very confusing place at first. This website has grown from being a very simple user-written encyclopedia (see E1) to a very complex online community with a focus to write, publish and edit a quality database of information, art and humor. When you make an account here you join not only a team of dedicated writers but an entire micro-society and community with its own pop culture, politics, beauty and blunders. It's not perfect. In fact, it can be pretty messy. It's cool, though ...

  
2. The web is distributed hypertext covering infinite subjects.
everything2 is localized hypertext covering infinite subjects.

everything2 is the web's schizophrenic little brother. 		 

Can these sources be used as an encyclopedia? I'd venture the guess that they can, but wouldn't advise quoting them in a paper that's supposed to receive a grade.


Go to: Too Common Knowledge.