Interpedia
Encyclopedia
Interpedia was the name given to the first proposals for an Internet
encyclopedia
which would allow anyone to contribute by writing articles and submitting them to the central catalog of all Interpedia pages.
Interpedia was initiated by Rick Gates
, who posted a message titled "The Internet Encyclopedia" on October 25, 1993 to the PACS-L (Public-Access Computer Systems Forum) Listserv
. That message included the following musings:
The term Interpedia was coined by R. L. Samuell, a participant in early discussions on the topic.
In November, 1993, discussions moved to a dedicated mailing list
, supplemented later by Usenet newsgroup comp.infosystems.interpedia.
There was some disagreement about whether all pages should be in HTML
, plain text
, or whether all formats should be allowed (e.g., as with Gopher). Another point of discussion was whether outside Internet resources not specifically written for the Interpedia could become part of it by simply including them in the catalog.
Furthermore, several independent "Seal-of-approval" (SOAP) agencies were envisioned which would rate Interpedia articles based on criteria of their own choosing; users could then decide which agencies' recommendations to follow.
The project was actively discussed for around half a year, but in the end never left the planning stages and finally died, perhaps partly due to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web
.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
which would allow anyone to contribute by writing articles and submitting them to the central catalog of all Interpedia pages.
Interpedia was initiated by Rick Gates
Rick Gates
Rick Gates is an Internet pioneer mostly known because he organised the The Internet Hunt and raised the ideas of Interpedia. He studied at the Graduate Library School at the University of Arizona. In 1992 he started the monthly competition The Internet Hunt where questions had to be answered...
, who posted a message titled "The Internet Encyclopedia" on October 25, 1993 to the PACS-L (Public-Access Computer Systems Forum) Listserv
LISTSERV
LISTSERV was the first electronic mailing list software application, consisting of a set of email addresses for a group in which the sender can send one email and it will reach a variety of people...
. That message included the following musings:
- The more I thought about this, the more I realized that such a resource, containing general, encyclopedic knowledge for the layman, would be an important tool for some types of research, and for the Net.Citizenry in general.
- Ahh.. but what about contributors... where will you find authors to write the short articles you need? Well, I'd first have to start out by finding some way of communicating with an extremely diverse set of people... everyone from linguistLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
s, to molecular biologists, from animal rightsAnimal rightsAnimal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activists to zymurgists, and from geographerGeographerA geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
s to gas chromotographers. Guess what? :-) The Net provides just such an arena! So I thought about it some more...
- ... and came to the conclusion that this is a good idea!
The term Interpedia was coined by R. L. Samuell, a participant in early discussions on the topic.
In November, 1993, discussions moved to a dedicated mailing list
Mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
, supplemented later by Usenet newsgroup comp.infosystems.interpedia.
There was some disagreement about whether all pages should be in HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, plain text
Plain text
In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text....
, or whether all formats should be allowed (e.g., as with Gopher). Another point of discussion was whether outside Internet resources not specifically written for the Interpedia could become part of it by simply including them in the catalog.
Furthermore, several independent "Seal-of-approval" (SOAP) agencies were envisioned which would rate Interpedia articles based on criteria of their own choosing; users could then decide which agencies' recommendations to follow.
The project was actively discussed for around half a year, but in the end never left the planning stages and finally died, perhaps partly due to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
.