At its inception, the Inside Northside website’s goal was to be a collaborative information hub, Fine said. The site, which Fine said logs 50 to 100 visits each day, most lasting a minute or two, started in April 2008 with the Northside Marketing Task Force paying its hosting and domain name fees. This year, random contributors paid those fees, about $220.

Fine is adamant that while the website "could be sped along" by an organization or anyone, that he "will not let it be owned by someone else" other than the people posting their words and pages. "It’s not a nonprofit, it wouldn’t need to be."

"Our best partner so far is North Regional Library," Fine said. On Saturday, Feb. 6 from 1-2 p.m., the library at Lowry and Emerson will make its computers available. Fine and a library staffer will assist people in posting content to their pages.

Of the site’s approximately 240 titles, about half have some degree of introductory text and links to the organization, business, or individuals’ websites; the rest have text only or are holding places waiting for text. Some of the entries give advice, like how to remove yourself from mass mailing lists.

To participate in the site, those who feel comfortable without human guidance may log onto the home page of www.InsideNorthside.org and follow instructions. Questions can be directed to admin@mail.insidenorthside.org or call or text message 612-293-MPLS (6757).

Fine said, "It’d be great encourage [NorthNews readers] to find us and become a Fan on Facebook.com/insidenorthside or Twitter.com/InsideNorthside." The site has close to 860 "fans" on Facebook as of this writing.

Wikipedia, the model for this effort, "is an unbelievable success. Lots of people giving little bits of time," Fine said. According to Clay Shirky, quoted in the "Cognitive Surplus" page (see InsideNorthside.org, "all pages" list) Wikipedia is "the cumulation of something like 100 million hours of human thought." Converting the "20,000 hours spent watching television commercials each weekend" to thought-energy for the InsideNorthside project, Fine imagines it would only take a year to equal the number of entries in an Encyclopedia Britannica.

To those who discount Wikipedia-like sites such as InsideNorthside.org, "its greatest fault is its greatest asset," Fine said, the fact that anyone can post or edit content. He explained that most people who have pages on InsideNorthside.org arrange to be notified by automated email if their page is modified. They can then log on and check the accuracy. "To anyone who doubts whether it works, I say ‘give it a shot’ but nobody has" made mischief with anyone else’s posts. He also receives an email any time someone makes changes to the site.

Describing himself as a stay-at-home dad, passionate about community and grassroots efforts, Fine’s skills are in web design and writing. Going out doorknocking for the PEACE Foundation as a liaison in the Northside Achievement Zone area with longer-term residents keeps this newer transplant (two years in the neighborhood) "grounded," he said.

InsideNorthside.org recently ran a two-week online popularity contest "Best of the North Side" using Twitter and Facebook posts to get computer users to submit nominations and vote. (For the results, see the link at the top of the InsideNorthside.org web page.) Admittedly not comprehensive, Fine told NorthNews "the best thing we can do is start, and Twitter and Facebook have enough of a fan base that we can do that. It was a chance to get together and talk about positive things. It would be nice to get all media on board" so there would be a more diverse nominating and voting body in 2010.

The contest, and InsideNorthside.org, Fine said, provide opportunity "for people who think it’s a great idea and would like to get together" to do so.