Digital Universe

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Digital Universe
URL www.digitaluniverse.net
Commercial? No
Type of site Online encyclopedia
Registration Mandatory
Owner Digital Universe Foundation
Created by
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Digital Universe is a project to create a "new network of portals designed to provide high-quality information and services to the public".[1]

Contents

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Goals

On the basis of interviews given by the founders, the Digital Universe concept appears to be undergoing rapid evolution, so it may be difficult to give a fully self-consistent explanation of the goals of the founders. Among other things, it seems that the project founders hope to create a worldwide network of researchers, scholars and educators, whom they hope will create "the PBS of the Web."[2]

While the public will be invited to contribute to some articles in the Digital Universe encyclopedia, they will be supervised by "stewards" whose role is to guarantee quality and accuracy of the articles. Wikipedia editors, in contrast, are for the most part supervised only by their peers. In addition, parts of the Digital Universe will be editable only by credentialed experts, although Digital Universe has not announced details on selection of these expert author/editors.

Constructing the Digital Universe is intended to be an open-ended project.

[edit] Multi-tiered system

The expert wiki, is expected to be written and managed by experts. [3]

The public wiki, will be editable by members of the educated public. However, according to Sanger, only registered users who have provided their real names will be permitted to edit this wiki, unlike Wikipedia. [3] According to Sanger, an article rating system will be used for articles in the public wiki. [4]

Some of the 3-D graphical interface features will require the use of a Mozilla-based browser developed by ManyOne Networks, which they say will be made available free of charge.

Some content will be available only to ManyOne subscribers.

[edit] Content

Around 100 content pages exist as of July 2006. The Digital Universe claims the following featured portals: Earth, Energy, The Arctic, Texas Environment, U.S. Government, and Salton Sea. The Salton Sea portal for example contains the following pages: Hydrology, Biology, Limnology, Ecological Issues, Values, Geography, Alternatives, and Cultural History.

The Earth portal is working on an Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE), [5] which will focus on the natural environment and its interaction with society.[6] It will differ from Wikipedia by limiting editing privileges to experts, by attributing all edits to their authors, by changes being published publicly only after approval and by using an expert-developed taxonomy for articles.[7][6]

EoE will use two parallel wikis, one "Stewarded", one "Public". The Stewarded wiki will be open only to "recognized scientific authorities" after their credentials have been reviewed.[8] Like Wikipedia, the EoE runs Mediawiki wiki software.[9] EoE is to use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 for its license.[7] Over 400 articles had been written by experts by January 2006.[10]

In May 2006 it was reported that the EoE was due to be launched in June 2006.[11] But a July 2006 article reported that the launch would be in fall 2006.[12]

As of May 2006, the EoE's International Advisory Board includes Robert Costanza, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Rajendra K. Pachauri and Frank Sherwood Rowland.[13]

[edit] Development

Principals of the Digital Universe project include Joe Firmage, USWeb founder; astrophysicist Bernard Haisch, president of the Digital Universe Foundation. On 14 March 2006, it was announced that Lawrence Lessig, Founder and Chairman of the Creative Commons Project, had joined the Digital Universe advisory board. [14]

Sanger took a "leave of absence" from Digital Universe, announced 27 September 2006, "in order to set up a fully independent Citizendium Foundation".[15]

[edit] Funding

According to Mercury Times, "Digital Universe, a non-profit based in Scotts Valley, is part of a complicated three-organization structure. ManyOne Networks is the for-profit arm of the operation, backed with angel investors and private investor funding that is developing the Digital Universe software. Its profits are funneled to the ManyOne Foundation, set up in Canada for tax purposes and to give the project a less U.S.-centric feel. Eventually, the foundation will acquire ManyOne Networks by buying out the investors at a fixed rate of return, Haisch said. The Digital Universe Foundation controls the content that is published online. It will issue grants to academics and researchers to produce work for the Web site. The plan is to create a self-sustainable organization through a mix of grants and revenue from premium services, such as high-resolution images and video and e-mail, with prices ranging from $7.95 to $49.95."[16]

By January 2006, US$10.5 million had been raised from investors and foundations for the Digital Universe project. [17] ManyOne Networks plans to offer premium services for $7.95 a month and to sell Internet access. [17] These revenues will be used in part to support the Digital Universe project. Firmage has stated that access to the basic Digital Universe content will always remain free and without advertisements.[18]

The stewardship program and other Digital Universe activities are the responsibility of the non-profit Digital Universe Foundation, headquartered in Scotts Valley, California.

[edit] Reaction

In January 2006, the pilot version of Digital Universe was launched. This contained approximately 50 portals. [18]

Some visitors stated that they felt this pilot version seemed confusing and difficult to navigate. [19][20]

[edit] References

  1. ^ dufoundation press release May 15, 2006
  2. ^ Daniel Terdiman, Wikipedia alternative aims to be 'PBS of the Web', News.com, December 19, 2005
  3. ^ a b Larry Sanger, "The Digital Universe in 2006", January 20, 2006
  4. ^ Larry Sanger, "Correcting Some Misconceptions about the Digital Universe", January 19, 2006
  5. ^ Larry Sanger (January 1, 2006). Earth Portal. Earthportal.net. Retrieved on September 21, 2006.
  6. ^ a b Cutler Cleveland, "More on the Wikipedia Alternative", News.com, January 9, 2006
  7. ^ a b Frequently Asked Questions", Earth Portal
  8. ^ The Encyclopedia of Earth -- A Prospectus
  9. ^ Larry Sanger, in comments to a blog post "Digital Universe and long odds" by Alex Halavais, 2 February 2006, Digital Universe and long odds
  10. ^ Art Jahnke, January 26, 2006 "World's experts gather online BU cultivates a corner of the Digital Universe"
  11. ^ Laura Smith, "Digital Universe gets UK uni stars", 9 May 2006, Information World Review News, accessed 12 May 2006
  12. ^ John Boundreau, "Digital Universe Wants to Assemble 'Information You Can Trust' About Science on its Web Site", July 24 2006, The Mercury News, accessed July 24 2006
  13. ^ International Advisory Board, Earth Portal, accessed 12 May 2006
  14. ^ Prof. Lawrence Lessig Appointment Underscores Digital Universe Commitment to Bring Together Renowned Experts Across Disciplines, 14 March 2006
  15. ^ Citizendium-l: Citizendium launch plan as of September 26, message by Larry Sanger.
  16. ^ Mercury Times article Digital Universe's goal: Information you can trust published July 24, 2006
  17. ^ a b Leslie Walker, "A Universe of Good Intentions, A World of Practical Hurdles", Washington Post, January 19, 2006
  18. ^ a b Dan Goodin, "Website aims to build non-profit research storehouse", Associated Press, 6 March 2006
  19. ^ Leslie Walker, A Universe of Good Intentions, A World of Practical Hurdles, Washington Post, January 19, 2006
  20. ^ Mike Langberg, "Firmage's `Universe' needs tweaks", Mercury News, 18 January 2006.

[edit] External links

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