by Susan Hibberd

Created on: April 27, 2008

Helium is never going to provide an international platform for writers while it is run by Americans.

Helium is an American company, and a brilliant money-making idea. They must be rubbing their hands with glee at all the stay-at-home Moms and retired gentlefolk who have made an e-home in the Helium community. Just read the About Me pages for verification of this statement!

The purported ideological remit behind the site is to provide a pool of knowledge written by the people for the people. Despite this being a noble idea, it suffers from the same faults as Wikipedia, which it is an imitation of, as is the British H2G2. The very premise behind it - that it is written by the people - is it's downfall. The content is written by well-meaning but often ill-informed people, and moderated only by these same ill-informed people. Thus, the articles contain many mistakes and much mis-information.

The fact that most of the contributers are American (understandably) is compounded by the lack of independent moderation. Articles are written with an American bias, and this is never diluted.

Articles titles also seem to be chosen with an American bias. The article titles bear this out. The NBA has a flood of titles seeded in its favor. How many will there be about other world sports? Why does America have a World Series when only American teams are in it? Where are the sports from lesser known countries?

There never seems to be any attempt to include any other nations. For example, there is very rarely any attempt to throw the net wider by the use of phrases like 'or your own currency' or ' in your country' or 'for the purposes of argument I will use America as an example'. Writers seem to assume that all readers live in America. This just compounds international popular opinion of Americans as self-centered and arrogant.

Reading the message boards, I hear that articles are rated down for not using US English. I myself use the Helium spell-checker and cringe every time I change favoured to favored and travelled to traveled, because I feel it is unpatriotic to do so. I feel I am somehow turning my back on my birthright by changing my spelling - would Americans change theirs if they wrote on a British site?

Is it fair if Helium to insist on American spelling when it is purporting to be an International site? What about people for whom English is not a first language? Are their ideas worth less than that of English speakers?

I think it is great that people from all different nations come together on the Internet, and can exchange ideas, thoughts and feelings freely. The internet itself is a wonderful thing. I think that Helium could become something great if it lost the bias towards America.

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