By Cathy Stevens

Cambridge, Mass.

Philip Greenspun says software that meets the precise needs of every user is a holy grail that no software maker can produce.

And because needs vary with each user, he says, users should be able to tinker with commercial software products -- in effect custom-designing those products to meet their own specific needs.

That's why he and his partners at ArsDigita not only give the company's software away, but also make the programming codes for their software -- which is used to build interactive online communities -- available for free to anyone who wants to use it or improve on it.

Anyone can visit the ArsDigita Web site and obtain a free "toolkit" that includes software needed to build an interactive online community. Also available for free is Greenspun's book, "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing."

ArsDigita's decision to make its codes available for free stems from the principals' belief that, in today's high-tech world, people are going to have to work together to create the best Web service designs.

"To make a difference is to work on Web-based, collaborative applications," he says.

As a doctoral grad student in computer science at MIT, Greenspun was bombarded with Web consulting work, so in 1994 he divvied it up with his fellow students.

As the workload grew, he and his friends concluded that Web design consulting could be a lucrative business. They formed ArsDigita in 1997.

For those who need more than a "toolkit" to design a Web service, ArsDigita provides fee-based consulting services. Its clients include nonprofits such as GuideStar and the Environmental Defense Fund, both of which have interactive ArsDigita-designed Web sites.

GuideStar's site, for example, enables visitors to find financial information on more than 650,000 nonprofits. The site also allows nonprofits to post financial and program information about their organizations.

Scorecard, a service of the Environmental Defense Fund's site, was developed by ArsDigita. Visitors can type in their zip code -- and find the pollution level in their neighborhood, as well as its causes.

In addition to providing services to nonprofits, ArsDigita also has created the ArsDigita Foundation to promote the development of "interesting, tasteful, non-commercial" Web services built by teenagers.

Formed in February, the foundation plans to award grants, the use of the company's Web server and technical assistance to teens who have built or are building Web services.

The foundation's first initiative is the $10,000 ArsDigita Prize, which will be awarded annually to a teenager who has built and maintained the best commercial-free, service-based Web site.

In addition to the winner's $10,000, seven other finalists receive $1,000, and all eight will be able to use -- for future projects -- a database-backed Web server designed and maintained by ArsDigita.

"This isn't a contest," says Greenspun, who teaches a class on software engineering at MIT. "It's a prize. We reward good work.

"The wellspring of Internet creativity has always been non-commercial, individual effort, and the greatest advances will continue to come from there."

The first winner, announced in June, is Daniel Hunter, who developed a Web calendar for Earlham College in Indiana, where he is a computer science major.

Greenspun came up with the idea for the foundation and then asked other MIT employees to help. They include Dave Clark, who helped develop the Internet and is senior research scientist at MIT"s Laboratory for Computer Science; Tim Berners-Lee, who helped develop the Web and is principal research scientist at the Laboratory for Computer Science; Michael Dertouzos, head of the Laboratory for Computer Science; and Hal Abelson and Gerry Sussman, co-developers of the Scheme programming language and co-authors of "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs."

In the future, Greenspun says, the foundation will continue to focus on reaching young people but might expand.

"We might grow it into something else for college students," he says.

Cathy Stevens can be reached at
Cathy.Stevens@furman.edu