As of June 5, Wikipedia's English site contained 1,820,757 articles. Worldwide, according to the site, there are "more than 75,000 active contributors working on some 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages."

The premise of the site is that it's a 24-hour source of free knowledge for anyone with access to the Internet.

It's the place to go if you want to know pretty much anything: a list of Polish composers whose last name begins with "J," an examination of popular clothing styles in the 1420s, even Juneau's average precipitation in July.

But the Wikipedia users - and the culture they've developed within - comprise the true beauty of the site.

Who are the people who spend their time creating these pages? What prompts a person to sign on and correct a misplaced modifier, revise a chunk of phrasing or add a tidbit of trivia?

These are people like 18-year-old Ryan Wetherell of Juneau, a Wikipedia user since late 2003. Wetherell has created 1,000 new articles, mostly very short ones, or "stubs."

His integrity is such that he was chosen as one of 1,200-odd"administrators." That means that during his surfing of the egalitarian site, he has the ability to delete a page or block a disruptive user.

Illustrations by Scott hughes / juneau empire all photos: file / juneau empire

"I enjoy filling in the gaps," Wetherell said. "Most people are appreciative of any work, whether you're starting new articles or just changing existing ones."

Former Juneau resident Brock Weller, known as "AKMask," created an entry for "Out the Road," that particularly Juneau-specific state of being, at 9:32 p.m. March 4, 2006.

It was one of Weller's first contributions. Two minutes later, a user named "Koavf" tagged it as extraneous and marked it for deletion.

But Weller argued his point, and Koavf soon agreed that "Out the Road" is a valid socio-cultural phenomenon.

"The creation of the article stems from the fact that I was rather new to the community at the time, had only been there, making a small number of edits, and was looking for a way to dive in a bit deeper," Weller said.

"I used to drive out to Eagle Beach with some friends of mine rather often, and it just seemed like a small, simple article I could create that wouldn't be too difficult, help me cut my teeth on a bit, you could say."

When you look at a Wikipedia entry, you'll notice a "history" tab on the top of the page. By clicking, you'll find the complete list of revisions, additions and arguments that went into building that article.

It's often a fascinating look at social cooperation and the ways in which conflict arises naturally when a group of people attempt to govern themselves according to egalitarian principles.

"Knowledge is not something to be guarded, held close to the chest, known only to a few," Weller said. "The knowledge of humanity should be open to all who fall under the umbrella term 'humanity.'

"The purpose of journalism is, in my eyes, to inform the audience of relevant information," he said. "Large media conglomerates don't inform particularly well, and when they do, there is always a point-of-view bias integrated in. By distributing the job and making the content available to all, the sheer number of eyes that keep watch on what we do and can change it keeps things in a neutral point of view, or at least close to it."

If you had to describe "Juneau," where would you start? Your observations would probably say a lot about your values. And your objections to others' comments would reveal much about your opinions.

GREAT AND CURIOUS MOMENTS IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE JUNEAU WIKIPEDIA PAGE

3:05 a.m. ADT, Sept. 19, 2002 - Longtime wikipedian "Zoe," now retired, posts the first entry for "Juneau City and Borough."

9:50 p.m., Oct. 1, 2002 - Pennsylvania-based "Ram-Man," a.k.a. Derek Ramsey, once dubbed by Wired Magazine the "No. 1 most active" wikipedian, merges the "City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska" page with the entry for "Juneau, Alaska."

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10:28 p.m., Oct. 20, 2004 - The first controversy arises. Administrator "23skidoo," a trivia fanatic from Calgary, modifies the phrase "Juneau is the only state capital in the US which has no roads leading to it" to "Juneau is one of only two state capitals in the US which have no roads from the rest of the country leading to them (the other is Honolulu, Hawaii)."

10:33 p.m., Oct. 20, 2004 - Five minutes later, "John Kenney," a European history buff in Philadelphia, changes it back. He adds, "I think the idea is that you can't drive to Juneau from anywhere. Presumably, Honolulu can be reached by road from other parts of Oahu.

9:57 p.m., Oct. 24, 2004 - "AJD," a Massachusetts geography fan, revises the entry to "Juneau is the only mainland state capital in the US which has no roads leading to it." He weighs in: "You can't drive to Honolulu from other parts of Oahu, technically; the entire island is within the city limits."

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5:15 a.m., Oct. 20, 2004 - "James Crippen," a linguistics student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, adds the Tlingit name of Juneau (Dzantik'i Heeni) and Auke Bay (Aak'w). Crippen, from Anchorage with roots in Angoon, calls himself "basically the only Tlingit-knowledgable editor in Wikipedia." He will go on to make a series of additions and revisions.

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5:38 a.m. Aug. 9, 2005 - A user from the IP 206.174.69.11 changes the entry to say Juneau is Alaska's "third-largest" city. It starts an ongoing battle between users, and illustrates one of the dilemmas of open-source: the use of appropriate qualifiers.

As a city, Juneau's population is larger than the population of Fairbanks. But Fairbanks is a non-unified borough, and its collective population is greater than that of Juneau's unified borough.

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6:07 a.m. Aug. 9, 2005 - "Manshoon" shares his thoughts on the proposed northern access road:

"Local opinion on the matter is decidedly mixed, with some seeing the road as a vital link between Juneau and the rest of Alaska, and others having concerns about the environmental impact it will have." Though neutral, the statement opens a can of worms.

6:26 a.m. March 19, 2006 - "Albatrossish" creates the "arts section" of the page and begins a list of "famous Juneau artists." He thus indirectly raises the question: what makes an artist famous in Juneau?

The first entry includes Linda Rosenthal, Rory Merritt Stitt, Buddy Tabor and David Woodie.

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3:32 p.m. Sept. 23, 2006 - Teacher "jlittlet" logs on and adds the following: "A 'Juneau body' is a humorous reference to an automobile in a dilapidated condition due to the unpleasant weather in Juneau. The weather, which is mostly rain, damages metal and causes rust very easily, since Juneau is in a notably humid climate."

10:46 p.m. Oct. 16, 2006 - The IP user 128.193.169.148 modifies the statement and says "Juneau is infamous not only for its impressive (and depressive) precipitation, but also for DOT's propensity to salt the ice-covered roads."

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8:53 p.m. Jan. 9, 2007 - In a stunning example of bias, a user from IP 206.174.126.160 notes that "MacKenzie Allison and Sarah Felix are the coolest people in Juneau!" "Evb-wiki" removes the statement eight minutes later.

6:31 a.m. Feb. 10, 2007 - "110010011," clearly a disgruntled public transportation user, inserts a 202-word rant on Capital Transit. It calls the service "overcrowded," "inadequate," "very dangerous," "unheated" and "confusing."

The post stays up 25 hours before its removed by "Saros 136," who comments, "an entire long paragraph, just to diss the bus company (without sources)? No."