The Disney Blog points to a cool Orlando Sentinel article on the ever-expanding online presence of ABC’s Lost, focusing on official sites that build upon themes and information from the episodes. From the article:

ABC is developing an interactive website to delve into aspects of the show’s mythology that will never be explored on air. Content for the site is being created by a “Lost” staff writer.

And also:

As technology has opened up the possibilities for accessing a TV program, the paradigm for marketing television shows has shifted, turning marketers and producers into partners.

In the spring, Disney-owned Hyperion Books will publish its second “Lost” book, a novel written by the passenger who got sucked into the engine in the pilot. The passenger, Gary Troupe, had e-mailed a manuscript to his publisher, and another copy will be found on the island, Lindelof said. Who actually wrote the book won’t be revealed.

Writers who now suddenly find themselves blogging for their characters, creating novels for them or sharing perspective on a website will eventually need to be compensated for the extra work, Cuse said.

“That is very much going to be at the forefront of all the new labor negotiations, particularly with the Writers Guild, because writers are at the center of television series production and all of these new ideas are ultimately writer-based,” Cuse said. “Right now, our involvement in this is about being involved in the cutting edge of these emerging technologies and learning how it works.”

Just as iTunes transformed the music industry by turning singles into a viable revenue source again, Cuse and Lindelof believe their show is at the forefront of the television revolution.

“We’re exploring a new frontier here in a lot of ways,” Lindelof said. “So it’s best to see what it is first, as opposed to everybody walking up to the cash register and saying, pay me, and then we’ll do the exploring.”

This isn’t a particularly earth-shattering revelation for those of us Lost fanatics who blog about the show and have seen the official sites. We’ve known about the producers and writers penchant for volumes of extra information since early in the first season. Still, here’s my list of official and unofficial sites that seek to broaden the story of the survivors beyond the confines of an hour-long TV drama.

Official:

• Official Site
• Oceanic Airlines
• The Hanso Foundation
• BigSpaceship1

Unofficial:

• Driveshaft – Second Tour of Finland
• Dharma Initiative
• Dharma Industries (alt. version)
• Dharma Initiative
• Aralai
• Globespotter

Fan sites with deceptive monikers: (Thanks, Michelle)

• Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack
• Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack (different)

I’ve blogged at length about most of these, so I’ll spare you all the links.

One of the reasons I’m obsessed with the show is that the producers and writers are obsessed with the story, characters and universe of Lost. They spill out so many easter eggs, clues, mcguffins and whatnot, it’s hard not to get caught up in it all. Plus, I’m fairly certain Lost viewers are incredibly smart, loyal and evangelical (about the show) – no doubt spurred on by the online components – which doesn’t hurt ratings any.

UPDATE: I found a USA Today blog post talking about a psuedo-officil site: King Cross State Police.

You can also see an exhaustive list of links at Lost Links.