About

Insiders' Pedia (IP) is is a non-profit, all volunteer, open and FREE online project that offers communities across the U.S a platform (i.e. InsidersPedia.org) that empowers local individuals (i.e. Insiders) and local businesses or groups (i.e. Entities) to share information by adding (i.e publishing) Pages to the Insiders' Encyclopedia website.

Every encyclopedia Page can be rated and commented on. Every Insider is held accountable for their contribution, no anonymous comments or ratings are allowed.

InsidersPedia combines (i.e. mashes) the best of Angies List, Wikipedia, the Yellow Pages, the Yahoo Directory, and the Open Directory project (or DMOZ) and brings a unique service to you for FREE, while emphasizing openness, community-policing, community contribution, equal rights to all users and free access to all. We also do not allow anonymous commenting or rating. As a result, InsidersPedia is effectively becoming a favorite local guide, favored by the same Insiders that create its Pages (i.e content) and maintain it.

The Insiders' Encyclopedia project (InsidersPedia.org, or "IP" for short) is the brainchild of the entrepreneur Ethan Zaghmut, who after about two years in planning and development this released the first Beta release on 6/6/2009.

Read the News Blog for more history.

In a nutshell, InsidersPedia is:

A collection (a network) of local encyclopedias written and maintained by local insiders
A local guide, a guide written by local Insiders
Empowering individuals and businesses daily
Continuously expanding and updating. Every Page is routinely updated by its creator.
An encyclopedia of local businesses, services and attractions (i.e. more than just a biz directory)
A business directory, where you list your business for free and can upgrade your page any time
100% the following:
- 100% free, for all, for ever
- 100% volunteer based
- 100% open directory
- 100% built by insiders / locals that know their community (like you)
- 100% human created and reviewed (not automatically created by computers)
- 100% free online listings service / i.e. directory serving as a local guide
- 100% high quality content
- 100% free ratings and reviews
- 100% available 24/7, 365
- 100% local
An Alternative:
- A 'free' alternative to the Yellow Pages
- A 'free' alternative to Angies List
- A 'free' alternative to Yahoo Listings
- A 'democratic' alternative to DMOZ (the open directory project)
- Free web Page - A platform where an Entity (business, service, landmark) gets a free Page
- Free publicity - why pay for online ads when you can get an IP Page + instant publicity
- A non-academic encyclopedia
- A non-academic Wikipedia
100% Human:
- Edited and used daily by people like you, for people like you
- Listings posted (published) by Insiders
- Listing "Categories" created solely by Insiders
- Ratings and Comments by Insiders
- Where people share info with others, empowering each other with knowledge
- Not automatically created by computers or software
100% Community Based:
- 100% community policed: Insiders report any inappropriate Pages
- 100% community populated: All pages were added by Insiders
- 100% community utilized: This project is here to benefit local communities for free
- 100% community categorized: Every Page belongs to at least one category
- 100% community organized: All the categorize that Pages belong to are chosen and added by Insiders (YOU)
Is NOT:
- A calendar of events
- A classified ads listings
- A job site
- A newspaper
- A dating site
- Facebook
- Wikipedia
- A computer / software / robot or automatically generated directory
- An old fashion type site where you have to pay to share info with others or get Listed.

Not an academic encyclopedia:

InsidersPedia achieves its goal by offering a platform (i.e this web site) that enables individuals to add pages. By freely adding pages to the encyclopedia local individuals (i.e Insiders) can share information about their local communities. Local businesses, organizations, professionals, teams, groups or clubs (i.e Entities) each gets a free encyclopedia Page (i.e. a free Page -- sometimes referred to as 'Listing'). Every encyclopedia page can be rated and commented on. Every Insider is held accountable for their contribution, no anonymous comments or ratings are allowed and Insiders that List an Entity (create a Page) cannot rate or comment on that Entity Page). InsidersPedia brings the best of services such as Angies List, Wikipedia, Yellow Pages, Yahoo and DMOZ while emphasizing openness, community-policing, equal rights to all users and free access to all. As a result, InsidersPedia has effectively become a favorite local guide created and maintained by insiders, an insiders guide.

IP Audience and Users:

IP complements these services: