System Analysis of Open Directory Project (ODP)http://dmoz.orgKatherine T. HaackUniversity of Texas School of InformationI385 TKMS – Dr. Turnbull1 April 2003Austin, Texas“The Open Directory Project is the largest, mostcomprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.It is constructed and maintained by a vast, globalcommunity of volunteer editors.”-- http://dmoz.org/about.htmlWhat is Open Directory Project?The Open Directory Project (ODP) is a massive endeavor that intends to catalog the world-wide-web through the dedicated service of (presently) over 50,000 volunteer editors. The net continuesto grow at unprecedented rates, thus disorganization is rabid as there is no central organization tothe web. Profit-based groups have emerged to create search engines and other knowledgemanagement tools for the organization of the web, however these groups cannot keep up with theever-changing organic nature of the web. Thus, their search engine sites often return searchresults that are saturated with link rot and topically invalid site recommendations.In 1998, Rich Skrenta began the volunteer-run GnuHoo (name inspired by GNU freewaregroup), which would later become the ODP. On June 5, 1998 GnuHoo went live and within twoweeks “there were 200 editors, 27,000 sites, 2,000 categories”. Within five months the sitegarnered the attention of Netscape and was acquired for their Netcenter site. However, the site’sname had now been changed from GnuHoo to NewHoo due to naming conflicts with thefreeware group called GNU who was in the process of developing a free UNIX inspiredoperating system. Soon the name changed one final time, becoming the Open Directory Project(http://www.laisha.com/zine/odphistory.html).Haack 1Inspired by the Debian Social Contract, which was created by the group who developed theDebian GNU/Linux system, the ODP issued a Social Contract that has seven primary edicts:1. The Open Directory Will Remain 100% Free2. We Give Back to the Web Community3. We Don't Hide Our Official Editorial Policies 4. We Provide an Open Invitation to Join5. We Encourage a Self-Regulating Community6. Our Priorities are Our Data Users and the Community7. Users Not Meeting The Free Use License (are not permitted)1 http://dmoz.org/socialcontract.htmlThe social contract of the ODP is interesting because it openly sets forth what the ODP expectsto be to the wider Web community while simultaneously how they expect the Web communityto treat the ODP’s resources.The ODP is also known as DMOZ, which is the acronym for Directory Mozilla. The DMOZname demonstrates the association that the ODP has with Netscape’s Open Source browser,Mozilla.How does the ODP function? 1 Author’s italicsHaack 2In similar, but electronic, fashion to the development of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)creators of the ODP envisioned a not-for-profit, volunteer group that would review, edit andindex websites that are submitted for entry to the OPD. One of the primary differences (besideslength of existence) between the OED and the ODP is that the OED is a printed edition. Thus,the OED can be updated only periodically, which is acceptable because the English language,while dynamic, is static enough that its comprehensive dictionary need not be frequentlyupdated. Alternatively, the ODP’s goal is to have a directory: 1) that is developed by Websearchers, for Web searchers, 2) that is filled with current, relevant topic driven siterecommendations. This goal requires the virtually real-time ability to update the directorybecause the Web is a dynamic entity that grows and morphs by the hour, necessitating a group ofhuman editors that can observe sites, site submission and complaints in a real-time environmentand make updates as quickly as humanly possible. Now that the directory has become so largethe human element does cause more of a lag time in updates simply due to the imbalancebetween the ratio of sites in the directory, continued submissions, and number of editors.How do the editors function?Although the ODP is “the most widely distributed data base of content classified by humans”with “over 3.8 million sites” included in the directory (http://dmoz.org) there are onlyapproximately 50,000 volunteer editors working to keep those sites indexed properly. Thedirectory continues to grow on a daily basis, presently (27 March 2003), it is divided into a totalof 460,000 categories that are comprised of sixteen top-level categories, including broad areas asArts, Society, and Science and their subsequent sub-categories that are appropriate to the top-level topic. Some categories, for example Arts: Television, have over 15,000 entries while otherHaack 3categories, such as Health: Alternative: Acutouch, have 4 entries. Each one of the categories/sub-categories has at least one editor, but many editors work on more than one category area.The OPD asks that people who choose to apply to become an ODP editor have a defined,educated interest in the content area they apply to edit. Prospective editors applications arereviewed and they are informed via e-mail if they have been accepted to edit a content area.Often a prospective editor will be denied because the area they have applied to is too broad, or itis apparent that they are not meticulous in their editing skills due to a poorly edited application.Some of the qualities that are looked for in editors are that they are committed to building adirectory that is “free of commercial interests and favoritism” (http://dmoz.org/become.html) Asa junior editor a person will be assigned to a small topic area and they can advance to edit largerareas as they gain experience cataloging for the ODP.Editors have access to many tools that they can use in cataloging work. By performing an ODPsearch using the keyword “editors” one will find that there are numerous knowledgemanagement tools available for editors of the ODP as well as a plethora of editing tools for otherareas ranging from ‘copyediting’ to ‘binary editing.’ Access to theses tools creates a closercommunity for the editors to work within because they have access to the knowledge andresources that there fellow editors are also using to create and improve the ODP. I attempted toaccess several of the ODP/DMOZ editor links but was presented a password-protected screen,thus I cannot explicate further on the knowledge management tools available to editors. I findthis an interesting barrier due to the fact