An Encyclo-what-ia?

This is a follow up to this post last weekend:

Kids and the Internet - it's a good thing, By Laura Matthews, Christian Science Monitor:  We read a lot of alarmist commentary about the dangers of the Internet for youngsters. ... I'm the first to admit that there are risks … Yet, from what I've seen, the educational benefits of online access are worth it. … the Internet gives kids access to information in ways prior generations couldn't even have imagined. ... 

Despite reports to the contrary, computer use doesn't have to be isolating. Our computer is in the family TV room, where my daughter has been known to converse with the family and laugh along with the TV even as she's instant messaging with friends, getting math help, researching a paper, and listening to music. … My daughter discovered online journals, or "blogs," when she was 16. After a lot of negotiating, she was allowed to start her blog on www.xanga.com Her "xanga" had to be accessible by me. She couldn't post her real name, photos of herself, or her location ... But in keeping an eye on her xanga, I also had access to her friends' xangas. Surprise - this opened me up to a whole new world of insight into today's teenager. These kids can write.  To keep a blog going, you have to have the discipline to write daily. This puts today's young bloggers on the fast track to future Pulitzers. To keep your friends coming back, you have to be interesting, funny, intelligent, relevant. These kids are all that and more. Once I got past the immature spelling and punctuation (along with usual teen slang and vulgarity), I was treated to some of the best poetry I've ever read. All of their blogs together are a veritable anthropological study of high school life. One senior I know has, in four years, transformed from what seemed like functional illiteracy - incomplete sentences, poor spelling - into a blossoming philosopher headed for a major university.  Aside from the keyboard and multitasking skills they've developed, the substance of what they're writing is way beyond what mine was at that age. Sure, their mechanics might be rough at first, but over time that rights itself. What's more important is they've got something to say, and the Internet gives them the means to say it. Don't be surprised if the rising generation of Internet users turn out to be the most articulate and best-informed generation in recent history. …