Among the myriad selection of websites that I visit on a daily basis, two sites that I think stand out in particular are Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), and The Onion (www.theonion.com).

1. Wikipedia: An archive of knowledge in the form of numerous webpages, utilizing the Wiki web application to allow users to access, view, add, and edit articles while some degree of moderation maintains the quality of the articles. Allowing this degree of freedom to add and modify the articles by any user (though hopefully the more knowledgable ones) utilizes the internet's vast reach in the number and variety of users that access it, thus lending Wikipedia and its related Wiki sites a base upon which it may expand the 'space' that it exists in on the web.


2. The Onion: A satirical website that lampoons modern day events on a weekly basis, The Onion is published both online as well as in print. Articles are sometimes fictitious, as are some of the editors who contribute these articles, but The Onion uses its decidedly outrageous brand of humor in a deceptively serious manner to create its own persona and space.


3. Both sites utilize the internet as the medium by which they are distributed and accessed with the intention of spreading information and opinions, though not seriously by the Onion. Wikipedia however lets users edit and add information as well on the innumerable subjects avaliable to expand the size of its 'presence' online, while The Onion provides humor for the growing number of people who read its satirical articles. Though Wikipedia's aims and methods are far more ambitious in attempting to be a valid encylopedia through the internet, it has so far proved highly successful considering there are at least 655,000 articles in English alone. I feel the reason for this success is simply due to its open-ended nature as well as a dedicated organiztion, the Wikimedia Foundation, that realizes the potential of Wiki. The Onion has also grown into a prime facet of comedy, spawning numerous other satirical newsites, having both a large base of readers as well as several full books of 'historically-related' articles. In this sense, The Onion uses the print medium while Wikipedia does not, though both have been often mentioned (and even misquoted) through various news magazines and networks.