Making a Contribution 243, on any topic. Books, articles, white papers, thought papers, and other flayors of the month will be placed there in an ever-expanding know! alge pool, Someone will need to coordinate all these digital documents. Bur who? And what would such a site look like? First, it would contain the knowledge access possibilities of Wikipedia and its sister proje Wikibooks. Second, it might also have the commenting, sharing, rating, and subscribing features of YouTube, Third, it would be a portal of resources much like Curriki and Connexions. In contrast to those content-sharing sites, such a site would be a resource portal for free hooks, documents, ane papers. After thinking about this, Iwas on the lookout for such a learning resource or site. I did not envision, however, that T would literally “trip” into it lear TRIPPING INTO SCRIBD Soon after writing the above section, I discovered that such a site actually exists, Iris called Scribd. [looked up Seribd and found that it was located in downtown San Francisco, So after my visit to the Wikimedia offices on March 7, 2008, I rook a short break and walked «few blocks from my hotel room to the headquarters of Seribd at 211 Satter Street, just on the edge of Chinatown. The lobby entrance was filled with balloons, banners, squirt guns, and skateboards, Not exactly what [expected to see, bur I soon found out thar they were remnants of the one-year anniversary party held at Seribel the day before. Though | did not have an appointment, the receptionist told me that they were willing to accommodace me in less than an hour. When I came back, | imet with Scribd CEO and cofounder, Trip Adler. ‘Trip Adler was just ewenty-theee years old, full of energy, and open to ew ideas, Trip was born and raised in the Silicon Valley, and the valley's entrepreneurial spirit was clearly in his bones. The idea for Seribx! was developed by Trip and his friends about the time Trip was graduating from Harvard. He had experienced all too often the numbing sensation that students at any level feel when they pour their heart and soul into a prouct that is vead by just one person, the professor, for perhaps thirty minutes and then is hurriedly graded! and quickly forgotten or thrown into the bin, When it happens repeatedly over a span of four oF five years, you start to fee! that your ideas «lo not