h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have been back in charge of h2g2 for just over a year now and I thought that it would be a good idea to look back at what we have achieved and to look ahead to where we might head next.

I have written to the volunteers too, to thank them for all the work and the hours, days, weeks and months of effort that they have put into the site and I would like to repeat those thanks publicly. Thank you to the Guide Editors, the Operations team, the Community Editors, the Moderators, the Technical Team, the Artists, Communications, the Post, all run by Volunteers. It has been hard work from time to time and I know that the pressure has sometimes, not been a huge amount of fun, but none of us, and I mean none of us, would have a site without the volunteers.

And to the Researchers and members of the site who have stuck with us, to the people who contribute to the Guide Entries, to the forums, to all those whose personal spaces are a retro glory, thank you too!

We faced a huge technical challenge when we took over the site. There were years of coding built up in layers over the years, from the original work we did back in The Digital Village days, when we launched h2g2, through all the iterations at the BBC. Just getting the site off the servers and continuing to work was very much a hold your breath moment. It has taken a lot of hard work to stabilise things and give us a platform from which I hope we can start to really innovate again. The goal remains the same as it always was , to build a fabulous Guide ( not an Encyclopaedia!) used and enjoyed by millions of people from all over the world, supported by an open minded, entertaining and tolerant community.

I have felt since the beginning that one of the things that made h2g2 special was that it had a core purpose, namely, the building of the earth edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

What I did not foresee as clearly was just how exciting ( and sometimes challenging!) the aspect of the "community' would be, but from the very beginning it was clear that we were building a great place to work, rest and play. Long may that continue.

Aside from the massive technical challenges that we have faced , I have been so proud of the way that the standard of the art work on the site has just gone up and up and when you add in the quality and beauty of Willem's Art Work ( the only individual name check I'm going to do! ) ( A53937714 ) there is a standard of work on the site which is thrilling.

The editorial team have also done a fabulous job. Just a quick look at just some of the selection of articles as I write this, Anarchy Online about MMO's ( A87763648 ), S Club Seven ( S Club Seven!!) ( A87762991 ), the Needles and Alum Bay ( A87764539 ), the Isle of Wight ( the most extensively covered place on h2g2?), the Hooden Horse ( A87767527 ), shows that the spirit of " Life the Universe and Everything" is well and truly alive.

I have seen many many wonderful conversations on many threads but am going to pick out just two, a fabulous discussion about appeasement and politics in the 1930's. I thought I knew a bit about that period but was amazed by how much others actually did know! I also loved the advice given to a father looking to bring his children for a day out in London. There is such depth and richness in h2g2 in all its highways and byways.

The challenge we face now is to continue this fabulous tradition and quality of Guide entries and conversations and at the same time to make it easier both to add and retrieve useful and informative Guide information. If I could distill the challenge we face in turning h2g2 into a world wide phenomenon again, that would be it - more information in and easier ways of finding it - on whatever device you happen to be accessing THE Guide on.

I am pleased that Field Researchers Limited is now up and running and constituted. This is an important part of the story too. We have effectively set aside nearly a third of the company in trust for the Community and at the same time set up the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Foundation, with its focus on literacy ( broadly defined) worldwide. We have raised a small amount of money so far and will soon be ready to make our first donations. Keep an eye out for more news on this in the near future. The goal here too is to build a world class Foundation. The Foundation will also have shares in the Company.

This is an innovative structure. At a time when many social media sites create value which is sold over the heads of the community we have set out to do the opposite and built in another key element with the Foundation too. We have not talked much publicly about this to date, but with some more of the structure now in place, I hope that we can now start to tell this story a little more widely.

So a final word to say that I think that Douglas would be thrilled to see that his vision is still alive and that we do have another shot at building a Galaxy class Guide to this bizarre and wonderful little planet of ours.

When the going gets tough for either Volunteers or Researchers, remember Don't Panic! No spitting! Be friendly and we'll all do our best to work out whatever the problem is and to stay creative.

Best wishes

Robbie

Cheers, Robbie. To the next ten years!

Thanks Robbie.
We have come far, haven't we?

Thanks to Robbie for those kind words. Here's to the future, everyone!

Hurrah! Mud in your eye!

Inspiring words, Robbie.

Wot he sez! and double to Willem

This is the 's sanctuaryand he ain't moving for no one

err! that's me of course

PS: Wot he sezis for Robbie's post

No spitting? Oh, crap. Oh, yeah, well done to everyone. Oh and Robbie- you took time out to look at an article I wrote for the post this week, thanks for your sound advice, kind words, and for finding the time, when you doubtless have a million and forty two other things to do. Same goes to Dhmitri, Lazanbaby, Pastey and anyone else I didn't get told about.

With you there. Does it make a decent yet?

And my Hooden Horse entry gets a mention too!!!

Whoo-Hoo.

MMF

Two of my articles are mentioned too!

And the Isle of Wight isn't quite the most-written about place on h2g2. There are still more articles on Australia, Scotland, the rest of England, Germany, Canada and the United States of America - but the Isle of Wight has almost overtaken Germany, and there are an additional 30 articles about the Isle of Wight in Peer Review, University Projects or coming up ...

<BB<

Most written about per square mile certainly

23 miles from east to west, 131/4 from north to south, 147 square miles in total. And there are still several of those square miles I've not written anything about yet

<BB<

Maybe an entry on "The Missing Parts of the Isle of White" ?

It's been quite a year. Since I've taken a step back, and gone back to being a Scout I can really see how it's working. There's fun stuff in Peer Review, interesting conversations in Ask, and so on. We're doing it! We're really doing it!

Nah, BB would certainly do a project on it at least

He could then do an entry about the enormous amount of entries on the Isle of White


At that point, he has to start doing things there in order to write about them

Adding my thanks for Robbie's message

Yes, Z, we are really doing it!

Thanks to Robbie and all who made it possible



lil xx

Thanks for this message Robbie, thanks for mentioning me as well! Congrats to everyone for making h2g2 what it is today, and please folks, continue and let's really make this site what it has the potential to be!