The official Web site for OpenCola -- one of the most interesting software start-ups in years -- claims that Cory Doctorow is "Chief Evangelist" and "Spokesmodel" for the company, which rolls out its new OpenFolders collaborative filtering environment this month. But Doctorow also happens to be an accomplished science-fiction writer, winning last year's prize for best new talent at the Hugo Awards (the Oscars of the sci-fi community). Interestingly enough, his latest, as-of-yet-unpublished book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, documents a future where Walt Disney World is run by an elaborate collaborative filtering system. The overlap between Doctorow's day job at OpenCola and his night job writing fiction makes for a unique combination: It's almost like William Gibson launching a company that sells neural plugs and stim-sims.

I first came across Doctorow at this year's PC Forum, where he delivered a hilarious on-the-cuff running monologue during the Peer-to-Peer panel. OpenFolders belongs squarely to the illustrious tradition of group AI programs like Ringo, Firefly, Alexa, or the recommendation engines at Amazon: software that taps into the collective intelligence of large groups of people by observing and learning from patterns in their behavior. Unlike its predecessors, OpenCola is also in the soda business -- albeit somewhat ironically. You can order the OpenCola soft drink from their Web site, and true to the Open Source tradition, they've published the "source code" for the beverage under the GPL.

Cory and I talked late last month about the goals of OpenCola, their distinctive take on how to measure relevance, the "all your base are belong to us" craze, new compensation models for info mavens, and his love-hate relationship with sugar water.

-- Steven Johnson