DMOZ Blog http://blog.dmoz.org DMOZ Blog http://blog.dmoz.org/media/feedlogo.gif DMOZ Blog http://blog.dmoz.org en-us Copyright 2014 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/DMOZ Search Pluginshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/05/09/dmoz-search-plugins/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/05/09/dmoz-search-plugins/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/05/09/dmoz-search-plugins/#commentsYou can now search the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web directly from your browser with a DMOZ plugin/extension.

There are two available, both developed by volunteer Editors:

 

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]]>photofox2014-05-09T10:15:00+00:00Official DMOZ Facebook Pagehttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/27/official-dmoz-facebook-page/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/27/official-dmoz-facebook-page/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/27/official-dmoz-facebook-page/#commentsOur official Facebook page can now be found at http://www.facebook.com/dmoz. The old page is no longer available so please update your bookmarks to the new URL. Don't forget to click 'Like' for directory news and updates.

 

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]]>photofox2014-04-27T17:21:00+00:00New Feature: Regional Treeshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/04/new-feature-regional-trees/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/04/new-feature-regional-trees/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/04/04/new-feature-regional-trees/#commentsRegional is a special place in DMOZ. Unlike the rest of the directory, where sites are primarily organized by their topics, in Regional sites are primarily organized by location. Every language in DMOZ has a Regional branch, and almost all have dedicated editors, endeavoring to keep their little (or big!) corner of the directory in tip-top shape.

Every website that has regional relevance and meets our site selection criteria can be listed in Regional, and purely local businesses are only found in Regional - so it's an important part of the directory, and one we are proud of. But we must admit: it's not always so easy to find specific types of sites in a particular area. Because of the hierarchical structure of the directory, and the editorial guidelines for site placement, you have to search around a bit to locate, say, all sites for bowling alleys in your area. They are likely to be listed in different localities, and depending on how many sites are listed in that locality, they may be listed at various levels in the topical hierarchy for the locality.

Recent improvements in our data infrastructure have allowed us to come up with a new way to present the data in our regional categories. We call this new presentation Regional Trees, and have rolled it out in a few corners of our Regional branches, to see how it works out. Take a look at a few examples:
o. Libraries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area
o. Hostels in Nova Scotia
o. Outdoor activities in Cyprus
o. Automotive businesses in Liechtenstein
o. Schools in Bursa (Turkey)
In all cases, the tree view shows results from all around the region, no matter whether the site is listed at locality level, county/district level, or state/province level. And even though few localities in Nova Scotia have a subcategory dedicated to hostels, you can find the hostels all in one place because editors have assigned detailed topics to the listings, beyond the depth of the category structure.

Creating a tree view for a regional structure does take extra work on the part of our editors, who must go through our existing listings and assign a specific topic to each one. So we're trying it out on a small scale first. Visit our Regional Trees category for an up-to-date list of the regional areas that are already participating.

When you visit a category that's part of a Regional Tree, you'll see theicon to the right of the category path. Click the icon to take you to the tree view. Navigate around to more or less specific topics, and up and down the regional hierarchy. When you want to return to the traditional category view, just click theicon to take you right back.

We hope you find our new feature useful! If you'd like to contribute to a Regional Tree in your own neck of the woods, apply to become an editor! Soon, you could be adding and organizing sites in your favorite area, and helping your neighbors find the sites of deserving local organizations and businesses.

 

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]]>photofox2014-04-04T13:55:00+00:00New Logo & Branding Changeshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/03/31/new-logo-and-branding-changes/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/03/31/new-logo-and-branding-changes/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/03/31/new-logo-and-branding-changes/#commentsOpen Directory Project, DMOZ, and Directory Mozilla are all names that have been used to refer to dmoz.org. After discussion with AOL we've decided it's time to focus our branding and use one name consistently.

Going forward the directory will simply be known as DMOZ. Today's changes to our homepage reflect this decision by introducing a new logo. You'll also notice updates to our documentation and interface. This is an on-going process and should be completed in the next few weeks.
DMOZ logo
Along with the updated logo you'll also find we've made it easy to access and follow our official Twitter account via the new Twitter button found throughout the directory.

 

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]]>photofox2014-03-31T18:04:00+00:00Front Page Statisticshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/02/03/front-page-statistics/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/02/03/front-page-statistics/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/02/03/front-page-statistics/#commentsLast weeks editing software update not only introduced the new Report a Listing feature, it also included several bug fixes. One of these addressed a problem with the total site and editor counts shown on the directory homepage.

Keen observers may have noticed a drop in both of these numbers following the software install. The counts are now accurate and will update on a more frequent schedule.

The 4.26 million listings and our category structure are available to download as RDF files. Don't forget to read about the required attribution.

 

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]]>photofox2014-02-03T16:44:00+00:00New Directory Feature: Report A Listinghttp://blog.dmoz.org/2014/01/30/new-directory-feature-report-a-listing/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/01/30/new-directory-feature-report-a-listing/http://blog.dmoz.org/2014/01/30/new-directory-feature-report-a-listing/#comments
To report a problem, click the new icon (http://www.dmoz.org/img/flag.png) that appears to the right of the listing:

This will take you to the new Report Listing page. Select the reason that best represents the nature of the problem, then complete the explanation field. A valid email is required to submit the report.


After a report has been submitted one of our volunteer editors will review the report and take any required action.

We hope that visitors to DMOZ will take advantage of this new function, so that we can address problematic listings in an efficient manner.

 

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]]>photofox2014-01-30T14:52:00+00:00100,000 Russian sites in DMOZhttp://blog.dmoz.org/2013/11/03/100-000-russian-sites-in-dmoz/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/11/03/100-000-russian-sites-in-dmoz/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/11/03/100-000-russian-sites-in-dmoz/#commentsThe editors of the largest open directory, DMOZ, are proud to announce that the 100,000th site has been listed in its Russian language branch. 100,000 sites selected manually according to objective criteria!
Why would anyone need slow manual selection in the times of ubiquitous Internet with automated services for site promotion and with search engines penetrating every corner of human activity? Why would one need manual selection of sites in the times of plastic surgery and food with meat flavor? We, the editors of the Open Directory, believe that people have a right to get information on a topic of interest from all the available sites, not just from those that hired a SEO promoter. Because people have a right to know all viewpoints about a subject, not just one imposed by the most popular resource. Because experienced Internet users know how difficult it may be to find information on a particular issue, although a search engine offers a dozen pages of links for any request. Because only a human, not a search bot, can tell true values from sham ones, artful from artificial, a master from a charlatan, and sites with real content from those generated automatically.

The motto of the Open Directory "Humans do it better" has been relevant for 15 years and remains so.

What can you get from the Russian DMOZ branch today?
100,000 sites in Russian with concise descriptions of their contents without advertisement or unnatural keywords. These sites conform to the selection criteria and have been found valuable by an editor who is an expert on a certain subject. And they may contain different, sometimes opposite, points of view.
These make up about 14,000 categories, each devoted to a specific subject or geographic location, where one can find sites worth attention and make an informed choice not imposed by anyone.

Join us!
We aren't ideal yet. There are many valuable sites on the Internet that should be listed in DMOZ. They need to be evaluated, classified and described. Those sites already listed may change their owners or contents over time, so each DMOZ category needs periodic quality control. If you can help with this, consider becoming an editor. Take a subject that you know well or the region where you live and fill out the editor application form for the respective category. If your application gets approved - be sure that you will get unique experience and pleasure from involvement in a large open project.

About the Open Directory
The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as DMOZ (Directory Mozilla), is the largest open directory of sites. The Russian language branch is currently the seventh largest by the quantity of listings. The number of active Russian-speaking editors is about 500. In total, about 5 million sites are listed in DMOZ in 89 languages, contributed by 99,500 editors. All the DMOZ editors participate as volunteers: no one, from a smallest category editor to a meta editor or an admin, receives any financial reward for their work in DMOZ.
The resulting data is available as XML licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. ODP data is used by a number of sites and search engines. The Open Directory is owned by AOL.

In 2013, DMOZ celebrated its 15th anniversary.

Written by the World/Russian Volunteer Editors.

100 тысяч русскоязычных сайтов в каталоге DMOZ

Редакторы крупнейшего открытого каталога DMOZ с гордостью объявляют о размещении стотысячного сайта в его русскоязычном сегменте http://www.dmoz.org/World/Russian/
Сто тысяч сайтов, отобранных вручную в соответствии с объективными критериями!

Зачем нужен медленный ручной отбор в наш век всеобщего распространения интернета, доступных сервисов автоматизированного продвижения сайтов и проникновения поисковых систем в каждый уголок человеческой деятельности, спросите вы? Зачем нужен ручной отбор сайтов в наш век пластических операций и продуктов со вкусом мяса? Потому что мы - редакторы Открытого каталога - считаем, что люди имеют право получать информацию со всех сайтов по интересующей их теме, а не только с тех, кто нанял SEO-оптимизатора. Потому что люди имеют право знать все точки зрения по теме, а не только ту, что навязана им самым популярным ресурсом. Потому что пользователи интернета со стажем знают, как сложно бывает найти нужную информацию по конкретному вопросу, хотя поисковик и предлагает десяток страниц ссылок в ответ на запрос. Потому что только человек, но не поисковый робот, сможет отличить истинные ценности от мнимых, искусность от искусственности, мастера от шарлатана, а сайты с настоящим контентом - от сайтов, генерируемых автоматически.

Девиз Открытого каталога «Люди делают это лучше» был и остаётся актуальным на протяжении уже 15 лет.

Что может предложить вам сейчас русскоязычный сегмент DMOZ?
Сто тысяч сайтов на русском языке, с кратким описанием содержимого без рекламы и искусственных ключевых слов. Это сайты, соответствующие критериям отбора http://www.dmoz.org/...es/include.html и представляющие ценность в глазах редактора-специалиста по конкретной теме, с разными, возможно противоположными, точками зрения.
14 тысяч разделов, каждый из которых посвящён конкретной теме или отдельно взятому городу http://www.dmoz.org/...раны_и_регионы/ , где можно найти сайты, заслуживающие вашего внимания, и сделать осознанный, никем не навязанный выбор.

Помочь Открытому каталогу
Мы ещё не совершенны. В рунете множество ценных сайтов, которые должны быть размещены в DMOZ. Их требуется оценить, систематизировать и составить к ним описания. А уже размещённые в Каталоге сайты со временем меняют своих владельцев или содержимое, поэтому каждый раздел нуждается в периодическом контроле качества. Если вы можете нам помочь в этом - станьте редактором. Выберите тему, в которой вы разбираетесь, или город, в котором вы проживаете, заполните заявку в редакторы соответствующего раздела. Мы берём не всех, а только лучших кандидатов. Но если вашу заявку в редакторы одобрят - будьте уверены - вы получите уникальный опыт и удовольствие от участия в крупнейшем открытом проекте.

Об Открытом каталоге
Открытый каталог, также известный как DMOZ http://www.dmoz.org (Directory Mozilla) - это крупнейший свободный каталог сайтов. Раздел для сайтов на русском языке сейчас занимает седьмое место среди других языковых разделов по количеству сайтов. Число активных русскоязычных редакторов в настоящий момент составляет почти 500 человек. А всего в DMOZ размещено свыше 5 млн. сайтов на 89 языках мира силами 99,5 тыс. редакторов. Все редакторы Открытого каталога действуют на добровольных началах. Никто, от редактора самого маленького раздела до мета-редактора и админа, не получает материального вознаграждения за работу в DMOZ. Результаты работы в формате XML http://rdf.dmoz.org/ распространяются по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommo...icenses/by/3.0/ . Многие крупные сайты, включая поисковые системы, используют данные DMOZ для своей работы. Владельцем Открытого каталога является AOL http://corp.aol.com/ .

В 2013 году DMOZ отпраздновал своё 15-летие.

 

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]]>photofox2013-11-03T09:23:00+00:00The difficulty of organizing a volunteer driven project...http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/08/02/the-difficulty-of-organizing-a-volunteer-driven-project/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/08/02/the-difficulty-of-organizing-a-volunteer-driven-project/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/08/02/the-difficulty-of-organizing-a-volunteer-driven-project/#comments
The Open Directory Project is 100% human edited and driven by a large number of Volunteer Editors.

What this means is that these people perform all the actions of creating and maintaining a human edited Internet directory, in between the real life pressures of work, looking after children and the other hundreds of mundane tasks that I could mention.

The organization runs remarkably well as long as one bears in mind that these people are donating their personal time to the Project and that every minute is precious and appreciated. In a way it self-organizes, much like bees in a hive (the queen is imo the software and the servers provided by AOL) - Editors see something that could be done, or can be improved and they bring it to the community's attention. Forum discussions take place, a consensus is reached and then an Editor, or a number of Editors will work towards getting it done.

Although different types of editors have permissions to do different things in the directory, at a community level we are all as close to an online democracy as it's possible to get. Conflicts do occur, but since we have a common goal, they are usually resolved by discussion between peers. Although it sounds fantastic it does have one major downside: Things that can be done in a few minutes in a classic business model may take longer in our collaborative community. To agree on something, even tentatively, editors need to have time to see proposals in the forums, consider them, discuss things and reach a consensus (using Latin words like forum and consensus is a reminder that "Rome wasn't built in a day")... This can be frustrating but it ensures that Editors of all levels can have their say and argue their point.
To help reinforce the sense of community that makes the directory possible, we regularly organize online events such as the Mozzie Awards and various editing challenges. The Mozzie Awards contain genuine awards for things such as "Best New Sports Editor", "Best Regional Editor" and many other categories, all of which are voted upon by their Peers. We also have some tongue-in-cheek awards such as "Meanest Meta", "Most Longwinded Editor", or even "The Cutest Couple" for editors who happen or choose to work together in certain categories. Voting in the humorous categories can be frantic and fierce... Editors have been known to try many ways to swing votes, for or against themselves.
The challenges are usually to work together in a specific area of the directory, reviewing things like site suggestions or update requests. When many editors work in a smaller area, the results are immediately visible.

DMOZ is different from any other directory in that we are not financially driven, Editors do not have to achieve an Editing Quota and there is no financial reward or incentive for editing. Along those lines, no site can gain entry into the directory by any method other than a Volunteer Editor choosing to list a site that meets our guidelines. There is no paid option for inclusion.

This post is actually a proof of concept - the community was short of a blog entry, I noticed, and got myself enrolled (or shanghaied) to write it... I have donated my personal time to aid the community and this is simply one of many ways that I help, besides basic editing.

Whether it is holding down a job, looking for work or looking after one's family, volunteering for a project like this inevitably means sacrificing a bit of something else. If you think you watch too much television, or you spend too much time playing WoW or Candy Crush, consider becoming part of something more challenging... You may find it as satisfying as I do.

elper - who sacrificed Spider Solitaire
snooks - who sacrificed washing his car

 

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]]>photofox2013-08-02T14:24:00+00:00Official DMOZ Twitter Accounthttp://blog.dmoz.org/2013/07/19/official-dmoz-twitter-account/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/07/19/official-dmoz-twitter-account/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/07/19/official-dmoz-twitter-account/#commentsDMOZ now has an official Twitter Account!
Get directory news and updates by visiting http://twitter.com/dmoz and clicking the follow button.

 

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]]>photofox2013-07-19T15:23:00+00:00Why List An Ugly Site?http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/06/27/why-list-an-ugly-site/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/06/27/why-list-an-ugly-site/http://blog.dmoz.org/2013/06/27/why-list-an-ugly-site/#commentsWe have all seen those ugly sites......... the ones with snow falling down across the screen. The sites with dark backgrounds, fluorescent orange writing in different size fonts that make it hard to read and that annoying music that always seems out of place.

Some webmasters complain and ask us why we list these sites. They are annoyed that their site isn't listed, even though it has great "sliding" photos and all the tricks that modern software such as Wordpress, can provide.

The answer is simple. DMOZ Volunteer Editors review each site according to the Editing Guidelines, specifically which sites can or cannot be included.

o. The site must have unique content. Many features of the site itself may be similar to other sites. The theme, the layout, the colours.... but the site is not listable unless it has unique content. Unique content is content that is not readily found elsewhere, or content that puts forward the site owners point of view, or perspective. Most sites that pertain to a specific business, or in the case of personal sites, a specific person, include by their very nature, unique content. They meet the listing guidelines as long as there is also sufficient content (e.g., not a business card site).

o. The site must not be an affiliate site that simply redirects through referral links to another website. Why would we list one of hundreds of sites with the same content, when we can simply list the main Affiliate site?

Editors do not review the site on how well it is designed, how appealing it is to the eye or how technically advanced it is. A simple html site on a free host may well have good, valid content and examples of this are found on the Angelfire platform. That is why some of these sites are listed and the fact that they are hosted on a free server makes no difference to the listability.

Editors are looking for sites that offer information to the Net Surfer. If you hope to have your site included in DMOZ, the answer is to simply build it with the focus being on the provision of informative and unique content. If your visitors find it interesting and they keep returning, then you most probably have a site that is listable in DMOZ.

[Written by editor snooks]

 

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]]>DMOZOpen Directory Projectphotofox2013-06-27T17:47:00+00:00Categories in the Spotlight, March Editionhttp://blog.dmoz.org/2011/03/14/categories-in-the-spotlight-march-edition/http://blog.dmoz.org/2011/03/14/categories-in-the-spotlight-march-edition/http://blog.dmoz.org/2011/03/14/categories-in-the-spotlight-march-edition/#comments
Today we're happy to bring you the first in an occasional series of posts which will highlight some DMOZ categories on popular, noteworthy and breaking news topics.

Enjoy!
Emily

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The 2011 Christchurch Earthquake and the 2011 Cricket World Cup
An aftershock of the 2010 earthquake, the quake that struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island at 12:51 pm on 22 February 2011 local time was more destructive and deadlier than its predecessor. The epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude quake was two kilometers west of the port village of Lyttelton and ten kilometers southeast of Christchurch. Hundreds have been reported dead or missing and estimates of the damage exceed NZ$16 billion.

Editor bldarter has collected a comprehensive set of listings, including RSS feeds, covering the disaster and its aftermath: Christchurch NZ 2011.

In an interview, Pete Dawson told Television New Zealand, "We'll rebuild. Of course, we will. We're resilient people, we're Cantabrians, you know. And we've got a World Cup to look forward to."

As if on cue, bldarter also provides DMOZ's 2011 Cricket World Cup coverage.

The 2010 Copiapo Mining Accident
On August 5, 2010, the San Jose mine, 28 miles north of Copiapo, Chile collapsed trapping thirty-three miners 2,300 feet underground. On October 13, 2010, after sixty-nine days underground, all thirty-three miners were rescued.

The story doesn't end there. The news media and a blogger bring us the miners' continuing stories: 2010 Copiapo Mining Accident.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
A musical comedy mini-series, it is the story of Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) on his mission to become a true villain and join the elite Evil League of Evil, all while enamoured with his love interest Penny (Felicia Day), and impeded by his nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). In addition to the mini-series there is a series of comic books, some of which centre around the supporting characters.

Directed by Joss Whedon and written during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the story was created as an inexpensive mini-series to show a professional production could be produced without the assistance of big corporations. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was aired online July 15-19, 2008. Early the following year, a special in-character appearance aired during the 2009 Emmy Awards. Emmy Award winning, the series also won a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form), the People's Choice Awards USA for Favorite Online Sensation, and seven Streamy Awards.

Enjoy the category Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, created by editor shadowlight.

Author Laura Hillenbrand
Laura Hillenbrand's first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) tells the account of Seabiscuit, the unlikely champion racehorse owned by a former bicycle mechanic, trained by reticent "Silent Tom", ridden by a jockey beset by bad luck and life-threatening injuries. Seabiscuit captured the hearts of Americans during the Great Depression. The bestselling book was made into a movie in 2003.

Hillenbrand's second book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, released in November, 2010, tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a runner whose Olympic aspirations were interrupted by World War II. A bombadier on a B-42, he survived a plane crash and was adrift in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days before being captured and held as a prisoner of war until the war ended. The screen rights to the book, a New York Times bestseller and named top book of 2010 by Time, have been acquired by Universal Pictures.

Find out more about this author who not only has written two bestsellers but done so while incapacitated by illness: Laura Hillenbrand

Japan Earthquake
Within hours of the disaster, editors had compiled listings of sites providing information about the earthquake and the tsunami it triggered, including news sites in Japan: Sendai, Japan 2011 and, thanks to afsitalia, 2011 - Séisme et tsunami au Japon.

 

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]]>Emily2011-03-14T18:33:00+00:002010 Editor & Community Achievementshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2011/02/04/2010-editor-achievements/http://blog.dmoz.org/2011/02/04/2010-editor-achievements/http://blog.dmoz.org/2011/02/04/2010-editor-achievements/#commentsInternational Growth & Expansion
Expansion of World/Ukrainian
During 2010, the number of listed sites in the World/Ukrainian branch increased by approximately 50% and Editor School was offered for the first time in this branch. Additionally, two editors attained high-level permissions in this area: one was granted access to the top level and the other received CatMod permissions.

Editor Promotions in World/Russian
The World/Russian branch promoted a team of senior editors (CatMod and Editall permission levels). These editors are ilyawww, raouf, tanstaaf1, vader and valeryiv. This is an important step for the Russian branch and ODP overall.

Addition of New Language Branches
Last year, salis created four new language branches including World/Kyrgyz, World/O'zbekcha, World/Türkmençe, and World/Uyghurche. In 2010, editors completed work to add World/Bashkir to the directory, and this language was activated in January 2011.

Tool Development Work
The editor community builds and maintains tools to help improve editing processes. During 2010, editors chaos127, development, jtaylorj, plantrob and rpfuller all worked to upgrade critical editor tools to keep directory processes running smoothly.

Personal Editor Milestones
Editor Anniversaries
We had a number of editors who celebrated their tenth anniversary with the directory in 2010. Congratulations on a decade of service go out to the following editors: albinfo, anthronet, bkalafut, boni, eddiep, edseward, ikw, jdaw1, kokopeli, liszt, mcowley, mngolden, motsa, ock, pvgool, rd232, sammy, smoorefu, stn77 and sutty.

Special Thanks...
For the past two years, we've had several editors who have worked collaboratively with our AOL Staff team to provide an editorial perspective to our ongoing projects and processes. Photofox, plantrob and sthenbelle's contributions have been invaluable, and we're very grateful that they have given additional time and effort as editor liaisons.

In Memoriam
Sadly, editor cicka passed away in 2010. She was a Catmod in both World/Srpski and World/Magyar. Her contributions to the directory were numerous, and included opening a new Editor School for World/Srpski. She will be greatly missed.

 

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]]>Emily2011-02-04T12:50:00+00:00Happy Holidays from DMOZ!http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/12/22/happy-holidays-from-dmoz/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/12/22/happy-holidays-from-dmoz/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/12/22/happy-holidays-from-dmoz/#comments
The editor community has collaborated to prepare the following post to wish you Happy Holidays. We hope you enjoy and we look forward to seeing you in 2011!

Emily

- - - - - - - - -

Happy Holidays to all our users from the staff and editors at DMOZ.

This time of year is often the time for reflection of the year gone by. The highs and the lows, the joys and the pain of events that have passed through our lives.

There definitely has been some doom and gloom throughout the year especially
with the global financial crisis but hopefully this may get better with the new
year for all of us.

Why not research the traditions of Christmas and New Year by diving in and
looking at our categories and find out information about this time of year by
simply flicking through the sites we have on offer. For example, by just going
to Home/Cooking/Holidays/Christmas/ you will see "Eggnog@" This is a link to
Home/Cooking/Beverages/Eggnog/. If you needed to know about Eggnog, we
have 17 delicious recipes that will help get your festive party off to a great start.

Here are some of our Yuletide categories:

Home/Cooking/Holidays/Christmas/
Home/Entertaining/Holidays/Christmas/
Shopping/Holidays/Christmas
Society/Holidays/Christmas
Society/Holidays/New_Year
Kids_and_Teens/People_and_Society/Holidays_and_Special_Days/Christmas/
Kids_and_Teens/International/Français/Société/Fêtes/Noël/
Kids_and_Teens/International/Español/Sociedad_y_gente/Festividades/Na vidad/
Kids_and_Teens/International/Japanese/人と社会/一年の行事/ク リスマス/
Kids_and_Teens/International/Česky/Lidé_a_společnost/Svátky_a_trad ice/Vánoce/
World/Català/Arts_i_cultura/Tradicions/Festes_anuals/Nadal
World/Chinese_Simplified/社会/节假日/圣诞节
World/Česky/Společnost/Svátky_a_tradice/Vánoce
World/Dansk/Samfund/Højtider_og_mærkedage/Jul
World/Deutsch/Gesellschaft/Fest-_und_Feiertage/Weihnachten/
World/Español/Sociedad/Festividades/Navidad
World/Français/Société/Fêtes_et_jours_fériés/Noël
World/Italiano/Società/Festività/Natale
World/Japanese/社会/文化/祝祭日・年中行事/クリスマス
World/Nederlands/Maatschappij/Feestdagen/Kerstmis
World/Svenska/Samhälle/Helger/Jul
World/Thai/สังคม/วันหยุดประจำปี/ คริสมาสต์/

You will notice how much a global communtiy the ODP is by the way we tie
categories of a similar nature together when they are when they are in completely
different languages.

Take for instance the category at Society/Holidays/Christmas. If you look under
the "See Also" group of links (which are categories in the English language that
are related to this one) you will see immediately that we have a similar category
in 12 other languages. These languages are Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish and Thai.
These links are here for your convenience and all you need to do to see what we
have in the other language is click on its name and you will be taken right to it.
If you know of some sites that could be added to any of the above categories, please
feel free to suggest them, or even better why not think about joining us and become
an editor. If you feel you would like to become part of the community just fill in the
application form and we will have a look at it as soon as possible.

As you can see from the number of categories above, and the plethora of different
languages, DMOZ is a multi-cultural, worldwide community that prides itself on trying
to give representation to all creeds, languages and cultures. That job is certainly not
finished, and it may never be, but we love to give it a go.

There are many other religious and non-religious festivals all around the world that
may not be as fully represented as they could be by the directory. It would be great
to have some input for these. Would like to join us to help us with that? We're always
eager to welcome new editors to help build and maintain categories, especially in areas
of the directory that are less developed. Just find a category that has your particular
interest, and click the become an editor link near the top of the page.

All that is left to do is again wish all our users a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New
Year and to assure you that we are all looking forward to a productive editing year at
DMOZ.

 

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]]>Emily2010-12-22T16:18:00+00:00DMOZ Planned System Outage Notification, Round 3http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/08/16/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-3/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/08/16/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-3/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/08/16/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-3/#commentsMonday, August 16 - Wednesday, August 18, 2010. The following functionality will be unavailable throughout this planned outage:
  • Site suggestions,
  • Site update requests,
  • New editor applications,
  • Editor & staff feedback, and
  • Public abuse reports.
Neither the Resource Zone public forums nor the DMOZ editor forums will be impacted by this outage. We will provide any additional updates about this outage to the public via this blog.

Thank you again for your patience as we work to upgrade the DMOZ directory!
Emily

 

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]]>Emily Kayser2010-08-16T06:00:00+00:00DMOZ Planned System Outage Notification, Round 2http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/19/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-2/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/19/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-2/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/19/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification-round-2/#commentsTuesday, July 20 - Thursday, July 22, 2010. The following functionality will be unavailable throughout this planned outage:
  • Site suggestions,
  • Site update requests,
  • New editor applications,
  • Editor & staff feedback, and
  • Public abuse reports.
Neither the Resource Zone public forums nor the DMOZ editor forums will be impacted by this outage. We will provide any additional updates about this outage to the public via this blog.

Thank you again for your patience as we work to upgrade the DMOZ directory!
Emily

 

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]]>Emily Kayser2010-07-19T13:49:00+00:00DMOZ Planned System Outage Notificationhttp://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/02/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/02/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/07/02/dmoz-planned-system-outage-notification/#comments
  • Site suggestions,
  • Site update requests,
  • New editor applications,
  • Editor & staff feedback, and
  • Public abuse reports.
    • Neither the Resource Zone public forums nor the DMOZ editor forums will be impacted by this outage. We will provide any additional updates about this outage to the public via this blog.

    Thank you for your patience as we work to upgrade the DMOZ directory!
    Emily

     

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    ]]>    Emily Kayser2010-07-02T11:34:00+00:00    Exploring DMOZ: Animal Collectionshttp://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/26/exploring-dmoz-animal-collections/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/26/exploring-dmoz-animal-collections/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/26/exploring-dmoz-animal-collections/#commentsHi Everyone,

    For this post, editor hiraeth has prepared an overview of her experience editing in the science categories. Enjoy!

    Emily

    - - - - - - - - -

    I'm a collector. In the same way that other people may collect stamps, coins or fossils, I collect websites. As an editor with the ODP, I spend a lot of time finding sites, labelling them, listing them and rearranging them. I am constantly on the lookout for new specimens and I open my collections to the public so that they can benefit from all the good and useful sites I have found.

    My favourite collection is Flora and Fauna. I could happily spend all my editing time adding to and classifying sites about the vast range of animals, plants, fungi and bugs that exist. The category has expanded considerably under my curatorship. During the last year I have been involved in a project to replace the English language subcategory names such as Snakes with their scientific equivalent, Serpentes. Because these names are less familiar to many users of the directory, there is a an A to Z index and also links in most subcategories to guide people to the correct location. The more scientifically knowledgeable may argue that classification has moved on and that the structure used in the directory is no longer up to date. I think this is a valid criticism, but as new ideas on taxonomy are constantly being put forward and revised, there is no consensus view and the category is likely to remain as it is for the foreseeable future.

    There are not many submissions to this part of the directory but some sites are suggested and these are mostly useful additions that will enlarge the scope of the category. However, a member of the public may, for example, suggest a gallery of photographs of unidentified butterflies found somewhere in the tropical rainforests of South America. I will either send this to Wildlife or the appropriate Science & Environment category in Regional.

    Another category in which I edit is Animal Health. Here, I have enjoyed adding a large number of sites on diseases of pets, livestock and wild animals. Sometimes I get distracted. While looking for sites on parasitic diseases I find myself adding sites on mosquitoes or ticks or bacteria to Flora and Fauna. Or fungal diseases may lead me to Flora and Fauna again or to crops or livestock in Agriculture where I also have permission to edit.

    A large part of Animal Health consists of sites about veterinary medicine and alternative medicine. The latter is broken down into sites about therapies and therapists in fields ranging from animal acupuncture to chiropractic, massage therapy and aromatherapy. Although Health/Animal is a topical category, the subcategory Veterinarians is broken down regionally and includes over 2500 individual practices from all over the world. (In the USA, even when quite small, these seem to call themselves animal hospitals, but in other parts of the world, clinic or surgery is the more usual term, and animal hospital is reserved for a specialist referral centre.)

    In contrast to Flora & Fauna, this part of the directory receives plenty of suggestions. Listing veterinarians in their correct location is quite straightforward. Nearly every vet with a working website should be listable under our guidelines. Sites submitted to other parts of Animal Health are often more problematic. Some are a mass of advertisements in which a small amount of not very useful information is engulfed. These do not get accepted in accordance with our site selection criteria. Others are supplied by people whose pets have suffered from various conditions and who now consider themselves experts on the subject. These sites can be listed if they contain sufficient good quality information. Other submissions are really about the keeping of pets, with a little information on health thrown in for good measure. I usually send these across to Pets for consideration by another editor. Some sites are not in English and get sent to the appropriate language category of World, and some have no connection with animal health whatsoever. These are quite a waste of time. Rather than deleting them, I have to search for a suitable category to send them to, a job that could have been better done by the submitter who knew exactly what the site was about!

    Besides these categories I edit in many other categories which I would love to tell you about, but time presses, and I had better get back to my collections and add a few more exhibits!

     

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    ]]>    Emily Kayser2010-03-26T17:17:00+00:00    Exploring DMOZ: World of Warcrafthttp://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/01/exploring-dmoz-world-of-warcraft/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/01/exploring-dmoz-world-of-warcraft/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/03/01/exploring-dmoz-world-of-warcraft/#comments
    Today we're starting a new series called Exploring DMOZ. These posts will give individual editors the opportunity to highlight categories where they work. We hope that this will help demonstrate the depth and breadth of editor knowledge and highlight the richness of the directory itself. Editor crowbar has prepared the first one.

    Emily

    - - - - - - - - -

    What is the topic of the category you edit in?
    Games: Video Games: Roleplaying: Massive Multiplayer Online: World of Warcraft

    What is it for or about?
    Well, it's an amazing on-line fantasy game that 11 million people worldwide play, and interact with each other in. It's a 3-D type of game with wonderful graphics that allows a player to explore a vast role playing world. There are so many different things a player can do in the game that it never becomes boring. The ages of the players range from children to senior citizens, and at $4 a week, it's very affordable.

    Can you explain what the subcategories are about? What do they cover?
    The game is so complicated and vast in its content and growing, that there are thousands and thousands of websites devoted to it, from Chats and Forums to actual books that have been written as guides for the class roles and profession roles.

    The subcategories sort out and gather together these topics so that the game player can go directly to the information they're interested in. Unlike a Google search, which I use in-game to find specific things that I need quickly, the subcategories in the Directory give the player a broader view of all the information that might be available, things that they may have been unaware existed. A Google search is great, but only if you know the information exists.

    Yes, in-game we know there are Guilds and how to form one, but only by visiting the Directory can you find out there may be 80,000+ guild websites, and that you can have a free site for your own Guild. Only by visiting the Directory will you find a list of databases, chats and forums you didn't know existed, podcasts, art, videos, walkthroughs and guides, and other useful information. Where do you think Google gets its information? Much of it comes from DMOZ.

    Why were you interested in editing it? What is your personal interest?
    Somebody mentioned the game to me, and I took a look at it out of curiosity, and I've been playing it for two years now. I was already an editor and it was a year before it even occurred to me to check DMOZ for the category. Once I found it existed, I applied to edit the category, and was immediately accepted and given permission to edit there. The problem I have is finding the time to both edit the category and play the game, it's a real battle between which is more interesting.

    Do you get a lot of site suggestions to it? How do you find new sites?
    Yes, the category gets many site suggestions. A lot of them, like game gold, item selling, and paid guides, or paid services have to be moved to a Shopping category, others are junk sites that get deleted, and the rest have to be sorted down to the correct subcategory, before I even think of reviewing them.

    What is fascinating about editing though, is that existing listings and newly suggested ones, often have links to other outstanding sites that are so good they just have to be listed. So, it's a very exciting prospect to find these gems, as it is for all editors.

    What do you look for to determine whether a site meets the selection criteria for your category?
    Unique content, meaning content that is original and of great value to other players like myself, or the writers personal opinion and experience in playing the game. Because of the vast content in the game, there's really no way not to have repetitious information pop up in explaining something about the game, but as a player myself, I'm a good judge of what the authors intent is, and how helpful the site would be to a player.

    As an editor, my only concern is to list sites that would be of value to the information seeker, in this case, other gamers, or future gamers, so we try to be selective in which sites we use in building a category. Though there are many sites to choose from, and more being created every day, not all sites are needed.

    Our main objective is to build a good category, not to list every site that exists.

    What are some of the more common reasons that sites do not meet these criteria, specific to your category?
    The most common thing I run into is a site that has a lot of generic information on it that can be found on most sites and a whole bunch of links to "for sale" sites selling something like guides or services. Their intent is perfectly obvious and fools no one. I might list the paid guide or services site itself, (in another area of the Directory) but not the sites that point to it. Those I would delete.

    There is a place for "paid for guides and services", but not in this particular category. All of the guides here are free, so "paid guides" would be listed in another category. If a site is turned down for this category, it doesn't get deleted, it gets sent to another category, in Shopping, which I also edit.

    Aside from reviewing suggestions, how do you contribute to the DMOZ directory and/or community (for example, sub-category creation/maintenance, category re-orgs, maintenance of existing listings, mentor relationships with other editors, tool building, etc.)?
    Besides this particular category and several other specialized topics, I also have editing permissions for all of the United States, which means I can edit hundreds of thousands of categories within the U.S. I have spent a lot of time in moving misplaced site suggestions, resolving broken urls of existing listings, doing structural work such as creating new categories and subcategories, @links, and looking at update requests from the public.

    I've mentored several new editors, some of which have gone on to become meta editors, I've led Team New York in our efforts to keep up with the thousands and thousands of new site suggestions we receive weekly, as well as investigating the thousands of existing listings that have url problems.

    I've created several new initiatives that I thought were good ideas to help solve specific problems, and brought them up for discussion in our forums, and I've joined in on many other discussions over the years led by other editors and contributed my own thoughts about them.

    I've also spent a lot of time on outside forums trying to answer questions from the public, and clearing up misconceptions about the Directory and editing.

    I don't like to keep saying "I", because it's about "we" collectively, working as a team. We are all equals, from an editor with one small category, to our Metas/Administrators, we work shoulder to shoulder, together.

    As you can see, an editor's role in the Directory is multifaceted, we do much more than sit around adding sites. There are many tasks, and they all need to be done, so our time is divided according to what interests us at the moment.

    But we all started with a passion, a special interest that we wanted to share with the world by building a category for others with a similar interest. If you have a passion, please join us as editors and see why we get so excited about the categories we edit in. Experience the pleasure we get in finding a gem to list, and the satisfaction of building something helpful to others.

     

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    ]]>    Emily Kayser2010-03-01T15:45:00+00:00    DMOZ: A Decade in Reviewhttp://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/29/dmoz-a-decade-in-review/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/29/dmoz-a-decade-in-review/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/29/dmoz-a-decade-in-review/#comments Hi Everyone,

    This week, we have a very special guest blogger! Bob Keating, our editor-in-chief, has prepared some personal thoughts and insights on the directory's next decade. Enjoy!

    Emily

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    The other night I was watching an old episode of the TV show "Six Feet Under," in which the character Ruth is coaxed by a friend to attend a self-help seminar called, "The Plan." The Plan uses the house as a metaphor for examining and re-building one's life. When Ruth tells her family about "The Plan," she learns it is not as new to her as it is to others. Her children believe it to be a cult, but show little concern of their mother's interests. Ruth's free-spirited sister said she went through The Plan in the 1970s when it was called something else, and then commented how Ruth's kitchen is exactly the same as it was back then. Ruth realized just how much rebuilding she had to do. She was terminally unhip and out of touch with the world around her.

    As I was watching others respond to Ruth's involvement with The Plan, I began to think about DMOZ. Over a decade ago, DMOZ was a new and intriguing idea of getting the web to organize itself by having web users build it, manage it, and develop it. DMOZ had its fair share of detractors, particularly from those who argued that its model would never result in a quality, commercially viable service. Then there were those who understood the possibilities of an emerging social media, and went on to build powerful consumer brands based on the idea of self-organizing communities.

    The '00s: Growth, Loss and Rebirth

    Reflecting over the past decade it is too easy to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes. In the last ten years, DMOZ has gone from scrappy start-up to search industry stalwart. DMOZ data is consumed by thousands of search engines and websites in over 80 languages, from Google to smaller, special interest websites.

    DMOZ has scaled to become, and sustained itself as the largest human-edited directory of the web. Over 84,000 editors (and growing) have contributed over the years, listing of more than 4.5 million websites total. DMOZ has been a major influence in the rise of social media, inspiring the creation of projects like Wikipedia. Its model for collaboration has been refined and improved upon to form the basis of a number of other editor-contributor projects.

    At the beginning of the last decade, DMOZ was managed by a small staff that had the goal of turning DMOZ into a self-regulating community of editors. DMOZ has pushed the limits of community self-regulation. Today, DMOZ operates primarily as a self-governing meritocracy in which day-to-day activities - from editor account requests to submission suggestions and editorial quality - are wholly managed by the community with limited staff oversight.

    A review of the past decade would not be complete without mentioning the day DMOZ went dark in late 2006 after a catastrophic operations failure. The herculean efforts and steadfast dedication of its technical editors and community leaders brought DMOZ back to life.

    Over the '00 decade, DMOZ has grown to be one of the most successful collaborative projects on the web. It has outlasted its commercial counterparts, and continues to be relevant in the search industry. The keys to its longevity and usefulness are its dedicated community, its open, collaborative editorial model, its non-commercial nature, and open data distribution channel.

    The '10s: Looking Ahead

    As easy as it is to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes, it's equally easy to come up with a list of things it can improve upon. This list is well documented in the annals of editor forums and search engine industry blogs.

    Much like Ruth's kitchen and her life in general, DMOZ still looks and operates much the same way it did a decade ago ... avocado green appliances and all. While DMOZ receives hundreds of editor applications, and lists thousands of websites each week, it needs a new Plan - a new blueprint for the future of how the web is organized, and how human organized data is consumed.

    Using traditional web directories as a means for information discovery is a thing of the past. However, the need for organized web-based content continues to grow exponentially. The future of DMOZ does not lie merely in improving its toolset, making it more SEO friendly, or convincing others of its collective brilliance. Its future lies in turning the entire thing on its head.

    In 2020, here's what I hope will be listed as the early successes of DMOZ during the '10s - and since DMOZ has been a bit like the Hotel California to me, I might even be writing it:

    • Developed an API to DMOZ data that allowed editors and developers across the web to write new applications using DMOZ data
    • Transformed from a fixed-path directory, to the largest faceted system for organizing information on the web
    • Become a major influencer in bringing the semantic web out of the lab and the enterprise, and into the entire web, popularizing Web 3.0 applications
    • Transformed DMOZ from a single service operated by a relatively closed and exclusive community to a suite of products with multiple levels of participation and engagement, particularly around communities of interests, both commercial and non-commercial.

    And hopefully that's just 2010. What's said in the years ahead depends on how the web community shapes DMOZ and develops new ways of using its data and services. I'm excited by the future of DMOZ as much as I was in January 2000.

     

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    ]]>    Emily Kayser2010-01-29T17:31:00+00:00    DMOZ 2009 Year in Reviewhttp://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/27/dmoz-2009-year-in-review/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/27/dmoz-2009-year-in-review/http://blog.dmoz.org/2010/01/27/dmoz-2009-year-in-review/#commentsHappy New Year!

    Now that 2009 is officially in the books, it's time to take a look back at the year that was. We've already heard about our editors' many projects and accomplishments this past year, so I thought we'd take the opportunity to look at some of our directory statistics and some trends we've seen throughout the year.

    As we've highlighted in the past, the DMOZ user base is incredibly international. In 2009 we had visitors from over 236 countries and territories around the globe. While five countries (US, UK, Germany, Italy and Canada) still account for the bulk of the visitors, we've also had visitors from emerging markets including India, Russia and China as well as from smaller areas such as Micronesia, Chad, Andorra, Benin, Christmas and Easter Islands - even Vatican City.

    According to ComScore, an independent company that measures internet usage, nearly 60% of these visitors were between the ages of 18 and 49; of these, 52% are male and 47% are female. The top two sources of traffic are Google and Wikipedia.

    In terms of the directory itself, we added more than 2500 new editors and more than 7000 editors contributed to the project this year. Editors made nearly 2 million editing actions, including more than 700000 URLs added or updated, and created more than 26000 new categories.

    Kudos to all who have made 2009 a success! We're looking forward to an excellent 2010.

     

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    ]]>    Emily Kayser2010-01-27T19:30:00+00:00