I've been thinking about this problem on and off for several years (including a startup with an alpha version a couple of years ago).
It's especially important in learning.
How do you organize and present information in a way that finding things most important/natural/easy/interesting to you isn't limited by dissipation of such information through old-fashioned network effects.
No matter what, I think you must first build a knowledge graph. One example that was recently posted to HN is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10468732. Maybe it could be crowdsourced or generated by mining Wikipedia.
Then you need some way for people to find out where they are on that knowledge graph, and a recommendation engine for where to go next. I also think it would be useful to mix in a few random topic nodes that are some number of hops away from a person's current knowledge, plus occasionally a completely random topic of the day.
But that's just the most trivial beginning to an enormous problem.
I'm glad there are others who think the same way! Like always, probably more topic-specific solutions will lead the way to a hopefully universal collection of knowledge.
One way to think of it is as a very early precursor to the civilization bootstrapping kits included on starships in Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought novels (particularly The Children of the Sky).
It's especially important in learning.
How do you organize and present information in a way that finding things most important/natural/easy/interesting to you isn't limited by dissipation of such information through old-fashioned network effects.