h2g2 is a modern incarnation of Mass-Observation (M-O), which was the first movement in Britain to solicit the opinions of ordinary people. A poet and journalist, an anthropologist, and a documentary film-maker started M-O in the 1930s. Between 1937 and 1950 Charles Madge, Tom Harrisson, and Humphrey Jennings invited people throughout the country to record their everyday lives in diaries or by answering questionnaires. Now the M-O archive is kept in the library of the University of Sussex at Brighton. History Today published an article by Patricia Cleveland-Peck in its magazine issue for February 1999; this article is available on-line from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Two examples from the M-O collection are drawn from page 206 of Len Deighton's book Battle of Britain, published by Coward, McCann & Georghean in 1980:

1. 
   Mrs. R made us all some tea—just for something to do, I think, because we were all awash with tea already. That's one trouble about the raids, people do nothing but make tea and expect you to drink it. There was a nasty, nervous feeling in the kitchen. Every time there was a thud, Mrs. R would say, 'Is that a bomb?'—and Mr. R would answer 'No, s'a gun'. I felt all swollen up with irritation, a bloated sort of feeling, but actually it was fear, I knew very well. A horrid, sick sort of fear, it's quite different from worry, much more physical. E says to me, 'Let's get out of here, let's get some air', and out we go, into the garden. It is a beautiful summer night, so warm it was incredible, and made more beautiful than ever by the red glow from the East, where the docks were burning. We stood and stared for a minute, and I tried to fix the scene in my mind, because one day this will be history, and I shall be one of those who actually saw it. I wasn't frightened any more, it was amazing; maybe it's because of being out in the open, you feel more in control when you can see what's happening. The searchlights were beautiful, it's like watching the end of the world as they swoop from one end of the sky to the other. . . .
   

   
   A London girl writing to Mass Observation, 9 September 1940.
   

2. 
   When the air raid siren sounded at about 8:30 pm, I was walking on Wimbledon Common with C. . . . We were walking along the centre of the road, although all the time I was eager to walk to one side, under the trees. Four young boys passed us, going in the opposite direction. They seemed quite unperturbed. We could still hear a plane and see the searchlights trying to locate it. Suddenly a swishing noise came creeping along to the left of us, increasing in force and sound as it came. The noise seemed parallel to the ground. C threw me on the ground and covered my head. As I fell, triangular spurts of flame seemed all around; the whole effect was like a gigantic jumping cracker. I seemed quite numb, my mouth was full of grit and dirt. All was quiet, and pieces of earth showered down on us. We both got up. Laughed a little—we were terribly dirty. We walked down the road home. I felt very excited, flushed and warm. Ready to laugh a lot, and probably talking a great deal. . . .
   

   
   A London girl writing to Mass Observation, 7 September 1940.
   

Obvious difference between M-O and h2g2 is that the latter is electronic, operating continuously with a reach that is global. h2g2 is more interesting because it is a self-referencing stream of consciousness: the database is the internal historical memory, and the researchers provide the external stimulus. Where h2g2 falls short is in its lack of automatic relational cross-referencing, which has to be provided by the activity of the researchers; though this may be untrue since the human mind is entirely dependent on external stimulus. In the case of h2g2 the researchers are the external stimulus directing the evolution of the internal historical memory.

Temporal stability is an issue of equal importance to the M-O archive and to h2g2. A fire in either location will deliver an impartial destruction. Strength of h2g2 is that it has the capacity to become more resilient as it is provided with hardware and software redundancy by being distributed to other geographic locations linked by the Internet.

Value of h2g2 will grow proportional to its size and become of greater utility not only in terms of the physical facts that it contains, but also to those people with an anthropological interest in the way the facts are presented and to those interested in the psychological aspects of the group interactions. It will be of interest to many.