Open Source Directories

[Sarah Jones]

Actually, there's already an open source directory in the works at 
http://dmoz.org/  This is the Open Directory Project, formerly 
NewHoo and then bought by Netscape back in November and 
folded into mozilla.org.

It started last June as GnuHoo, is non-commercial, and currently 
has 7783 volunteer editors and 382,155 listings. Although the basic 
directory structure was started by the originators, the development 
and organization of the structure is an on-going collaborative effort 
of those volunteer editors. Personally, I am finding it a fascinating 
project to watch, as interested and even empassioned internet 
users work to create a user-centered public resource and behind-
the-scenes editors' tools. For an article on the project, here's a link 
to a San Jose Mercury News piece:
http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg020799.h
tm

--Sarah
University of Texas at Arlington Libraries


On 5 Mar 99, at 7:04, CMUNSON wrote:

> Actually, some of us have recently come together to start work on an
> open source alternative to Yahoo! and Alta Vista. This collaborative effort
> will involve hundreds of programmers, librarians and volunteers. We are
> worried that the egalitarian nature of the Net will be trampled and
> destroyed by the mad rush of the Yahoo!s of the world to maximize their
> profits. We're also motivated by the desire to create a directory that has
> some value added to it by humans.