Sometime this month, Larry Sanger and several colleagues will launch what they're calling the PBS of the Web.
Known as Digital Universe, the project is an attempt to present a diverse collection of information on just about any topic imaginable. Some will be links to other Web resources, while some will be citizen journalism. But the highest-profile part of the project is likely to be its encyclopedia. And while its entries will be written by the general public, the project is distinguishing itself from Wikipedia by having many entries vetted and certified as accurate by subject-area experts.
Thus, the Digital Universe will attempt to become the largest and — its founders hope — most reliable, source of freely-accessible, publicly-created information on the Web. And as such, the project has already and will continue to line up a series of Ph.D.s to serve as "stewards." To pay them for their services, the Digital Universe Foundation has lined up more than $10m in initial funding.
ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com recently caught up with Sanger to talk about the project, his role and what he hopes the Digital Universe can achieve going forward.
Q: Explain what Digital Universe is.
A: It will be a non-commercial, free or open content authoritative information resource that mirrors reality. You can think of the Digital Universe as a set of portals, each defined by a topic, such as the planet Mars. And from each portal, there will be links to the best resources on the Web, including a lot of resources of different kinds that are prepared by experts and the general public under the management of experts. This will include an encyclopaedia, as well as public domain books, participatory journalism, forums of various kinds and so forth. We'll build a community of experts and an online collaborative network of independent organisations, each of which has authority over its own discipline to select material and to build resources that are together displayed through a single free-information platform.
It will grow slowly over a couple of years, correct?
Absolutely. In fact, what I anticipate is that the sort of development that has been taking place over the past few years in terms of developing the portals that make up the Earth portal will continue. You know, one of the most exciting things about this actually is the idea that we are going to be providing a platform where experts can manage the public to work on a three-dimensional model of reality.
Manage the public to do what?
If you can imagine people, all of the people who are used to being levels editors for a game like "Unreal", for example. Imagine the staff that...
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