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That's a lot of web-pages!

In fact, if you were to read a web-page per second, it would take you over 60 years to get through all that content. I guess this also means that if we assume the Web is less than 15 years old, content has been added at an average rate of one new page every 250 milliseconds.

I strongly suspect, given the decidedly non-linear growth of the web during this period, that content is now being added at a significantly higher rate these days.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Who's getting paid for adding all this content I wonder?

Sure, there are now a good number of websites that operate on a commercial basis and where people really do get paid to create content - but there are also still a large number of sites that are nothing but a labour of love.

Personal home-pages, club websites, community projects, etc -- all these represent content that is created for free and as a benefit to the entire online community. What's more, some of this user-created content is absolutely riveting and incredibly good, making many commercially operated sites look sad by comparison.

But have you contributed your bit to the web?

If the Web isn't to become mired in commercialism, promotions for MLM schemes and often boring "news" sites -- it's damned important that individuals and not-for-profit groups continue to create and publish fresh content.

Virtually all ISPs provide some facility for their customers to publish pages on the Web as part of their standard monthly subscription package but it seems that only a tiny percentage of people are taking advantage of that.

Fortunately, there are now other ways that individuals can contribute to the growing mountain of online content.

Discussion forums and usenet offer a great way for every-day Net users to voice their opinions, help out others and generally increase the total online knowledge-base that the web has become.

There are also sites such as Wikipedia where those with knowledge of a specialist subject can share it with others by contributing to what has become a huge online encyclopedia.

It still worries me however, that the vast majority of Net users are simply knowledge consumers and not contributors. And it's not as if these people have nothing to offer -- everyone has some bit of knowledge or experience that someone, somewhere, will consider to be of value to them.

How can we cultivate a greater spirit of contribution and involvement from these "consumers" and, by doing so, further add to the mass of online content?

Or am I wrong and is the input of ordinary folks no longer required or desired on the web? Would it simply produce more noise in a medium already highly polluted by spam, porn, MLM websites and other dross?

If you know of any really good and useful non-commercial websites created by individuals or groups with a view to simply sharing knowledge or experience then please let other Aardvark readers know.

Lighten Up
Well here's some of that user-provided content that sometimes makes us laugh, sometimes makes us think, and sometimes just makes us want to switch the computer off and watch TV.

This site was obviously created by someone who's already had a guts-full of our boring politicians as they warm up for the election.

We all know that SUVs (or Remuera Tractors as they're known in NZ) are a status symbol in some parts of the country. Owners of these vehicles attract ridicule however, when it is clear that they've never seen anything more "off-road" than a Foodtown car park. Well here's the answer, a product that every Remmer ought to have in the glove-box.

And finally this week, if anyone ever complains about your fashion-sense, just send them this link. Oh the pain!

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