Arts | Business | Computers
| Games | Health | Home
| News | Recreation
ArtsIn the past month, Arts has been deeply affected by the Regional reorganization. Editors have been working hard to make sure the appropriate sites are moved to or @ linked to Regional. Both Music/Bands and Artists/For Hire and Music/DJs/Wedding and /Regional moved to Regional, and a great number of categories have been appropriately @ linked to prevent the creation of duplicate categories in the future.Recently, some major categories have been reorganized, and some exciting new categories have been created. Music/Styles was reorganized and features a new taxonomy that's easy to browse. Mystery/Authors was restructured and standardized to match the rest of the Authors category. Music/Charts was improved by placing appropriate categories in the Regional branch and restructuring the subcategories left behind. Visual Arts/Prints_and_Printmaking was renamed Printmaking and appropriate categories were moved to more appropriate places in the Shopping branch. All World Literature categories in the Regional branch moved to Literature/World_Literature, and @ linked back to the country. In the next month, a number of popular categories are continuing to improve as they grown. New category descriptions, charters, and submission guidelines are making Arts easier and more fun to edit. Currently, editors are discussing the structure and placement of Literature/Authors category, and frequent discussions by editors of Animation/Anime, Photography, and Celebrities help the categories grow and adapt impressively. Jschwart BusinessThere have been a few notable discussions in the Business forum about editing and communication. The greater ODP community could benefit from these discussions. Please check out the following threads:Communicating
Category Deletions & Reorganization
Everyone is encouraged to start similar discussions in their own areas. The following are the major ontology initiatives happening in the Business branch: Business/Employment - the reorganization is still in full swing, although it has slowed down some during the month of May. Editors continue to move industry related employment sites under industry categories. Business/Resources - the taxonomy has been finalized. Associations, News, Publications, and Directories will be moving under Business/Resources to create a category akin to a ready reference library collection containing key business web sites. Business/Business_Services/Government - this is a new category. It will contain Web sites about business-to-government services. This will be the place to find information about government contracting, and sites for companies whose clientele is primarily or exclusively government agencies. Business/Training_and_Schools - the discussion is continuing. Main discussion revolves around moving training cats and sites under appropriate areas of business knowledge and industry. Finally, congratulations to editor Hudson on his promotion to editall. As our resident PhD editall, hudson has become an invaluable resource in the Business branch. His expert knowledge of management is an asset to the community. Hudson's willingness to cooperate and assist editors in all areas, as well as his editing abilities, has made him one of the community's brightest stars. Thanks Dan, for a job well done! Rdkeating ComputersWith Microsoft being cleaved by the judge, now is an interesting time to take a look at some of the other subcategories and 5000 sites in Computers/Software/Operating_Systems. The Macintosh systems and the Mac OS were recently cleaned up to reduce overlap. With over 2,350 links, Linux is the largest subcategory in Operating Systems. Linux has been receiving a great deal of attention in the press. Stop by and see what all the fuss is all about.The regional reorganization is going strong in Computers. Web Designers and Developers and Internet Access Providers were recently reorganized to comply with the guidelines. Thanks to all who have helped with this mammoth undertaking so far. Additional changes are posted in the Computers forum. Computers currently has the highest percentage of unreviewed sites, over 32%. Wanna help reduce this percentage? Take a look at the Computers Help Wanted to see if there is an area where you would like to battle the unreviewed. Shara GamesWe have reversed the sort priority order in the Games category, bringing the genre categories above the line. This makes these categories more visible for the user who is browsing to identify categories of interest.In addition, we reviewed the Video Games category. The Genres category was moved above the line in sort priority and editors are reviewing the cross linking of Video Games categories. Standardization of regionalized Games categories has been completed. Other recent changes have occurred in Roleplaying to the sort order in Dungeons and Dragons. The naming of Guilds_and_Clans categories also was standardized, and editors plan to review categories further this summer. Finally, the Diablo series reorganization was completed. Gracel HealthConditions and Diseases has been reorganized. All conditions, diseases and disorders have moved to topical subcategories of Conditions_and_Diseases. For example, all respiratory conditions and diseases are now located or @linked under Respiratory_Conditions. Don't know if a disease is genetic or respiratory or suspect that it may be both? Then look for the disease in the alpha-bar. Can't find a disorder, condition or disease in the alpha-bar? Feel free to ask or suggest a new category in the Health forum.The Vision and Opthamology categories are being reorganized to reduce overlaps. The Vision category will contain more consumer oriented sites, while ophthalmology will contain sites geared towards a professional audience. At the beginning of June, Health had the 5th highest percentage of unreviewed
sites, 15.14%. Take a look at the listings in Test/Help_Wanted/Health/
if you would like to help lower this number.
HomeHome/Gardens editors worked on Landscaping last month and have continued working to improve the Gardens taxonomy. The Plants category is being discussed now, and cleaner, more intuitive groupings in the top subcategories promise to be especially user-friendly.A staff initiative in Ontology about reorganizing "for kids" sites in the directory has resulted in a completely new taxonomy for Home/Kids. The new structure has significantly restructured the homework and interest categories. Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, English and other academic subjects have been added or expanded. All of the Home/Kids categories are intended to have sites that are for children to use, including a whole section that is preschooler-friendly. There is now a need for experienced editors to add sites in some of the new categories, such as the subcategories under English and Foreign Languages. If you are an experienced editor -- wise in the ways of children -- please consider contributing to this content development. Consumer Information product review categories have been improved, and cleanup continues. Problems of what and how to deeplink sites in this area of the ODP are a concern to editors, as we all grapple with how to get users quickly to the brand name product sites that they are searching for. The Home/Do-It-Yourself category has been developed and is now looking for a very experienced editor to take over editing, as well as keeping track of how-to categories elsewhere in the directory. Changes to the Home/Personal Finance taxonomy have been proposed. There are many personal finance categories scattered throughout the ODP, and it remains a popular topic that users search. Pension and IRA categories have been added, and a new Money Management category has been proposed. Dmozmarch NewsAfter another round of adjustments, the relationship between News/Newspapers/Regional and its many counterparts in the Regional News_and_Media categories finally reached a happy medium this past month. The subsequent moves also brought a few new editors under our roof from the UK, Canada, and several US states. Regional news and media editors might want to take a look, as this category offers an easy-to-browse gold mine of local newspapers.Shifting to the lighter side, an Odd News category was created under News/Alternative_Media, and Recreation/Humor/News was brought over to join the impressive collection under Satire, providing browsers with comic relief from the headier topics typically found in News. Finally, thanks to a lot of hard work and tedious sorting of sites, a solution was found for the massive list of names under News/Media/Journalism/Photojournalism/Photojournalists/Freelance. As many freelancers travel the globe, the original regional breakdown was dissolved, opting instead for putting individuals into an alpha-bar. On a side note, the number of unreviewed in News, typically among the
lowest in the ODP, has been steadily growing. Even if sifting through "currently
under construction" sites for virtual newscasters doesn't pique your interest,
there are several interesting categories to work on and develop,
RecreationRecreation has the Regional reorg bug this month. Many categories are getting ready to, or are in the process of, moving to Regional as I type. Camping, Fishing and Lodging are three categories that are working with the regional editors to get content moved over into the appropriate regional subcats. Many beneficial and clarifying discussions have occurred regarding the Regional Guidelines.My vote for the longest reorg and clean up? Recreation/Autos. For the third month in a row I am able to say that Autos is continuing cleaning up and improving their taxonomy. There have been many different leaders in this effort including Delancey, Crankpin74, and others. These categories should be sparkling soon. Thanks to all who have pitched and done some moving, editing and duplicate
deleting in the Lodging moves. There has been a lot of blood, sweat and
tears along the way, but we continue to do a terrific job of plowing our
way through. Many thanks to Pepe
for keeping the effort organized and fun.
ReferenceReference has been pretty quiet recently. We have completed standardization of regionalized Reference categories. Reference/Books was reworked to contain primarily @ links to non-fiction book categories throughout the directory. The category also houses general sites about non-fiction works in addition to the @ links. Community_Colleges was renamed to Two_Year_Colleges as this is a better definition of the category.We are currently working on restructuring Reference/Education/Subjects
as part of a larger restructuring of Home/Kids. Sites and categories
are moving to other topical areas of the directory. When there is duplication
they are being merged, otherwise they will be moved to Education categories.
RegionalThe Regional branch continues to be the hotbed of activity in the ODP. Editors are continuing to reorganize regional categories so they comply with the Regional guidelines. Certainly this no small feat considering the Regional category makes up nearly a quarter of the directory. We've made a lot of progress in Regional, and I would like to thank and congratulate the Regional editors on the work they have done thus far.So what's next for Regional? There is still a lot more to be done. First and foremost, we need to evaluate how effective the guidelines are at creating a standard and consistent taxonomy. As we've applied the guidelines over the past few months, it has become apparent that there are a small number of ambiguities and inconsistencies in both the geographical taxonomy models for countries, and the standard topical subcategories. The community needs to address these gaps in the guidelines, and tighten them up. Secondly, we need to take a look at how we want to incorporate the work done in the "Beyond the Template" threads. There are four of these threads. Here is a link to the first one. Quinn2004 has done an excellent job at recording decisions made in these threads. See her site Beyond the Template. While the title of this document is "Beyond the Localities Template - U.S., " one idea is to expand it so it is applicable to all countries, regions, and localities. As the regional subcategories in the other branches of the ODP are reorganized to comply with the ODP Guidelines, editors have the opportunity to mine these categories for sites that can be "double listed" in Regional under specific localities. To find out what these categories are, consult the Regional Reorg Announcements Thread. This thread gives links to threads in the subject fora that announce regional subcategory reorganizations. Also, if you are adding a new site to Regional, you should look to see if there is a category outside of Regional where the site can also be listed, and submit it there. Finally, minor updates to the guidelines need to be made to reflect decisions made in the Regional forum. Look for the addition of "Guides_and_Directories" to the standard topical template in the next few days. In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, I encourage other
editors willing to lend a helping hand in building out the category for
their hometowns, favorite vacation spots, or areas of interest.
ScienceScience has been fairly quiet for the past month. But the editors are busy. Science has one of the lowest percentages of unreviewed sites at 6.78%. New editors are always welcome.Regional changes are happening slowly in Science. Be sure to check out the Science forum to reading about the latest changes or announcements. Another ODP reorganization, actually outside of the regional reorganization, is having an impact on Science. Sites for children up to age 13 will soon be moving from Science over to the newly created Home/Kids/Science category. General educational sites should still be listed and sent to Science/Educational_Resources or subject specific categories within Science. Science/Astronomy/Planetariums has been cleaned up and sites described thanks to the efforts of editor Universimmedia. Shara ShoppingShopping continues to grow. Since last month we've grown to more than 63,000 sites and we'll be at 64,000 very shortly.We are currently involved in post reorganization cleanup. The Decor and Design category in Home and Garden tree has been finalized. We are currently moving categories from Recreation to the Shopping/Antiques and Collectibles that were missed during the reorganization. The food editors have started a continual thread to discuss issues relating to the Shopping/Food category. We have also done final cleanup on regionalized categories as part of the Regional reorganization. Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual/Transgendered shopping categories will be moving over from Society shortly. A thread has been started to introduce new editors to the Shopping community. By introducing new editors, higher level editors can assist them with getting oriented to the Shopping tree. We're also working on reducing the number of unreviewed in Shopping. If you like to shop, consider applying for a category and join the Shopping/ team. A number of categories in need of help are listed in Help Wanted. Gracel SocietySociety editors are working on some difficult problems in their categories.Currently under discussion are regionalization issues. One tricky area involves the intricacies of double-listing local churches in Religion and Spirituality as well as in Regional. Society/Law/Attorneys_and_Law Firms, a beautifully organized area, is now being discussed by the editors to determine how best to help users who might be looking for this information in Regional categories. Personal homepages are always a challenge, no matter where they reside in the Directory. There are usually a lot of them, on many topics, and of varying quality. Society editors are discussing how best to construct titles and incorporate the site owner’s name. The problem of where to assign personal pages that also have good genealogical content is under discussion. User feedback indicated that the Astrology and Horoscopes categories are sometimes hard-to-find categories. R&S editors responded by moving the Divination category out of Paranormal and in under R&S. Links from other categories were added, all in the hope that users would be able to find out what the sun and the stars have in mind for them this month. In closing, the second phase of the Society/Military reorganization has been completed, with United States Armed Forces categories now centralized under Regional/North_America/United_States/Government/Military. Dmozmarch SportsThe big word is Sports this month is consolidation. Editors took a look at the 131 categories at the top level of Sports, and agreed that some consolidation was definitely necessary. The first step was creating an alpha bar, where all major and minor Sports are @ linked. Now, users can find Karting or the Greek Pankration without knowing that Karting is a type of Auto Racing and Greek Pankration is a Martial Art. The first set of categories to be consolidated was the various types of Football. American, Australian Rules, Gaelic Football, and Rugby are now all subcategories of Football. Other groupings being discussed include Combat/Wargames, Lifting, Wrestling, Water Sports, Motor Sports, and Racquet Sports.However, consolidation is not the only news in Sports. New categories continue to develop, including Hockey/Ice Hockey/Sled Hockey and the always-controversial Animal Fighting. News and Media category names have been standardized across the Sports, and Soccer is being restructured to better represent National Teams and Professional Leagues. In the next month, the consolidation plans will continue to develop,
and Sports will continue to adapt to the Regional reorganization.
More new and interesting Sports will undoubtedly come to the attention
of Sports editors, increasing the breadth of an already impressive part
of the directory.
WorldWorld continues to grow as more data users and editors find out of its existence. Highlights for this month include the creation of a Suomi forum, the creation of a Lingua Latin category (who said Latin was dead?), as well as the development of a Japanese new category request form.Editors are also making strides towards building out the subject categories under various World languages, such as in Espanol. Check out the growth statistics for World courtesy of editor Camellus. In addition, here are some links to some other useful tools developed by the community: Copy and Paste to
World Tool - courtesy of editors Susanna
and Vladd.
AdultDiscussions still continue over special Adult Guidelines in the following thread. Some Adult editors are having difficulty following and/or understanding the guidelines. Outside of these discussions, the Adult branch is relatively quiet. Any Adult editors who would like to contribute information to next month's Ontology Beat please send me a note. Bruns |
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