When fifth grade teacher Caryl Brown sends her students home with an assignment that requires research, she knows that most of them will rely on the Web for information. But with millions of websites, how can kids find what they’re looking for and, more importantly, be sure they can rely on that information? “It’s overwhelming to me, let alone an 11-year-old,” says Brown.
In navigating the Web, information fatigue is as common as sunburns in July. There is no comprehensive “card catalogue” system to organize the gargantuan library, nor is there a guarantee that the information is accurate. Typically, search results also include sponsored links, which may not contain the most objective information. Kids (and often adults when the advertising is more subtle or indirect) can’t tell the difference between regular content and content that has been paid for.
Seeing an opportunity to bring order to chaos, Joe Firmage, former USWeb founder and Internet whiz-kid, has founded Digital Universe — a rapidly evolving project supported by his Silicon Valley-based company ManyOne Networks.
Here’s how it works. ManyOne is a platform for people and organizations to build portals (“doorways” of information on specific topics) quickly and inexpensively. It runs the software and the financial infrastructure so users can focus on creating content. Digital Universe’s commercial-free portals may include large universal topics such as the Arctic, Human Rights, the Cosmos, until the entire treasure trove of human knowledge is “portalized.” Within each portal will be links to vetted articles, websites and news items. The platform is set up to be browser-neutral, which means it’s compatible with any computer, even for accessing the 3-D portals (The Human Body and the Cosmos will have this feature). Users will have the option of typing in their age to receive age-specific content.
What makes this massive undertaking significant is that all this information will be overseen by paid experts (known as “stewards”) to ensure accuracy, and each portal will be contextualized in relation to other portals. For example, the expert of the Ocean portal can grant editorial control to a steward for the Reef Portal, then in turn the Fish Portal, then the Shark Portal, The Angel Fish Portal, and so on. “The editorial network builds itself, like a tree, so it grows organically and exponentially, with editors choosing editors,” says Firmage, 36. “It creates a global editorial room allowing for checks and balances.”
For scholars, the Digital Universe is an opportunity to publish their work and educate the public on topics they’ve spent years studying. It can be disheartening when scholars find inaccurate information on the Web in their topic area. “A lot of information is by those I call the invisibles,” says Peter Saundry, Executive Director of the National Council for Science and the Environment. “You have no idea who they are and if they are objective.”
Saundry oversaw the launch of the Earth Portal in April, which he says provides for a “visible” community of scientists from around the world, who back their words with their names and reputations. Evolving each day, this portal now has 700 approved experts from some 46 countries contributing to its “Encyclopedia of Earth.”
“It isn’t an encyclopedia of faith,” — which Wikipedia has been called — “the Earth Portal doesn’t have to be taken on faith,” says Saundry. He points out that they have the cadre of experts and “quality control” that comes with the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as the free access that comes with Wikipedia. (Larry Sanger, Wikipedia co-founder, was instrumental in making the Earth Encyclopedia happen.)
While the accuracy of information found on Wikipedia may be up for debate, no one argues the phenomenal success of the online encyclopedia. More than a third of American adult Internet users (36%) consult it according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
“Trying to become a centralized source, which is what Digital Universe is trying to do, is difficult. You really need to be the first to do it, like eBay, Google and Wikipedia,” says Pete Ashdown, of XMission, a successful Internet service provider.
But finding a way to deliver accurate information directly from topical experts to viewers is exactly what has the science community so enthused about the Earth Portal. “This can help open up communication between scientists and the general public in a way we haven’t seen before,” says renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, who is on the ManyOne Foundation Board. “It can be a wonderful tool not only for science students, but really for anyone seeking credible information about any number of important topics: climate change, bio-diversity, conservation and so much more.”
Joining in this race to determine where and how information will be organized and presented on the Web is the Encyclopedia of Life, which launched last week. It aims to document on the Web the world’s 1.8 million species over the next 10 years. “We are much more than an encyclopedia,” says Firmage.
Yet critics question whether Digital Universe can be financially viable without ad revenue or donations (Wikipedia’s method). Their plan is to generate revenue by providing optional build-your-own-website service and email hosting for $7.95 a month. Third parties, like nonprofit organizations, can set up portals as well to generate revenue.
Once investors are paid off, Firmage plans on funneling money into the ManyOne Foundation in which board advisors will oversee how it’s spent. The board and its advisors reads like a Who’s Who list, including the likes of Goodall, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus and General Wesley Clark, among others.
Even with the brains and a brawny vision, Digital Universe’s task ahead is daunting. Categorizing the best content on the Web is an undertaking that Yahoo! abandoned years ago, while other encyclopedia websites already offer content posted by experts for free. Such challenges don’t discourage Firmage, who sold his first company, Serius, for $20 million at 23; Serius evolved out of the challenge of writing software for his mother’s greeting card business. Since then, he has given away some 95% of his wealth to philanthropic causes.
The Digital Universe is one of these “causes;” Firmage has invested $3.5 million of his own money in it (some $12 million has come from angel investors). He says: “To me there will be no solution to any major global problem — poverty, global warming, health care, human rights — unless the public has and wants access to high-quality, non-commercial, non-biased information.”