Kids
and Teens: A History
by
holidayzone
That was then, this is now: Kids and Teens celebrates its first anniversary
Nov. 14, 2001, marked the first anniversary of the juvenile version of the Open Directory Project. But the roots of this endeavor go back much further. From the days of Gnuhoo, so it seems, many ODP editors edited with the younger set in mind. Categories with names like "For Kids", "Children," and "K-12" randomly appeared throughout the directory.
As the directory evolved, two juvenile-specific categories emerged: Home/Kids and Society/People/Teens. These categories became the first central location for sites geared toward younger users. In fact, they would eventually become the foundation of the Kids and Teens project. But they were a far cry from the directory that exists today.
Sites geared toward parents and teachers were mingled among listings geared toward younger Internet users. What's more, child- and teen-oriented categories were still scattered throughout the directory.
In early 2000, editors in both Home/Kids and Society/People/Teens began a major housekeeping operation, re-directing all sites not geared toward either children or teens. That accomplished, editors launched a campaign to get all the kid-oriented categories scattered throughout the rest of the directory moved to Home/Kids.
This campaign promptly mushroomed. Initially, Home/Kids editors sought only to create a central repository of kid-oriented sites. Other editors chimed in to suggest the creation of an independent kid-friendly directory. And staff heard them.
About the time child-oriented categories were moved to Home/Kids, some noticed a new top-level cat. Though not yet visible from the public side and not accessible to editors, Kids and Teens had been created. Shortly thereafter, staff e-mailed editors in both Home/Kids and Society/People/Teens, confirming that a new category was in the works. More than a new category, however, staff informed us that Kids and Teens would be a stand-alone project a directory within a directory, so to speak. Included as part of the complete ODP RDF dump, Kids and Teens would also be available as a separate dump for users interested only in kid-safe content.
Then, on Nov. 14, 2000, we logged on and discovered the dream had become a reality. Kids and Teens was live!
We quickly discovered, however, that creating a comprehensive youth-oriented directory from two unrelated categories was no small task. There were content duplications and holes to fill. Some of the listings which had transferred over clearly violated the new Kids and Teens content guidelines. Others included content the guidelines did not specifically address. And then there was the mammoth task of assigning newly-created "age tags" to more than 5,000 listings.
Every single category had to be edited. Each and every listing had to be reviewed, one page at a time. For the site to remain in Kids and Teens, every page had to conform to Kids and Teens guidelines. Whenever non-conforming sites were found, they had to be shipped off to an appropriate category in the classic version of the ODP.
But Kids and Teens editors banded together and made short work of the task that initially seemed overwhelming. The age tagging done and the category duplications resolved, we turned our focus toward building the new directory. And build we did! Kids and Teens doubled in size during its first six months of existence. By the time it celebrated its first anniversary, it had tripled.
Many things have changed since the initial launch of the Kids and Teens directory. We have a new crew of experts -- yet we have also managed to hold on to a few of our most active and experienced editors who have been with us since the beginning. Today, the Kids and Teens community is approximately three times the size it was when the project began.
Additionally, we are now seeking to provide the most comprehensive kid-safe and kid-friendly directory in various languages, from English to Turcke. In October, Kids and Teens/International was born. Various World editors stepped forward to assist, and we became a more culturally diverse community through the creation of new Kcatmod positions for non-English categories.
With an increase in editors came an increase in listings. We now have more than 16,000 total listings. Of these, over 14,000 sites are in our English directory. Nearly 2,000 are in the newly-created International categories.
Though Kids and Teens is a whole directory in itself, it has the lowest number of unrevieweds in the entire directory (comparative to other top levels), and our unrevieweds are currently at less than 5.5% (below the average unrevieweds in other top level nodes).
Yet, like all other areas of the directory, Kids and Teens still needs help. With increasing unrevieweds, the job will not be easy. We have a lot of great editors in K&T, and if the existing trend repeats, we will have 20,000 sites by early next year: work harder, and we'll make it before 2002.
So what's next for K&T? Only time will tell. But those who have worked with this project from the beginning are firmly convinced the future is bright.
As one original kmeta wrote,
"I've watched the Kids and Teens area progress from a small part of the directory, to what I believe is now a comprehensive and safe guide for kids. ... I have no doubt that the Kids and Teens directory will grow more and more comprehensive as the days roll by. I'm also confident that editors will do everything in their power to make sure that K&T remains a safe place for kids to visit."
May we live up to her expectations in the months and years ahead.