Everything2 could be easily distributed to multiple servers at multiple
organizations, with a set standard of communication between the servers (which could be based on an
XML Web Service communication protocall such as
SOAP). E2 could release all the data for the project in
XML format (similar to what
OpenDirectory does) and then sites such as
Yahoo and
Google could use that data to develop their own Everything2
datamines (pending they follow the standards setup by using the
Everything2 data in the first place). If
Yahoo and
Google were to use this data, they could easily intergrate their large datamines to the database, and if
MSN was to say intergrate it they could intergrate things like
Encarta.
Many places are involved in active datamining, and adding the Everything2 data to their service is a very valueable thing to have. The current owners of the E2 database could easily charge those who wish to sell the data along with other products, and then provide the data to all who want to actively participate in the program and allow their users to add to E2.
Information is a
commodity, and like any commodity it can easily be
traded into
capital if you know how to properly manage your commodity (money that would make this server go a bit faster and possibly get a nice
Oracle 9i Database
Cluster running this thing.. or at least something more suited for datamining than
MySQL).