Ontology Beats

Arts

Pardon the nostalgia, but it's been two years this month that the first staff editor -- we'll call her jschwart -- started working in the Arts branch of the ODP. At the time, Arts had about 90,000 sites. Today, the site count is almost 250,000!

During the last two years, Arts has gone through an amazing number of changes. Does anyone remember what we went through to create the Entertainment category -- or the amazing amount of work that went into eliminating overlaps in the Literature and Crafts categories? It may be hard to believe, but there was a time the Britney Spears category had only 50 sites, and no one had ever heard of a category charter!

I'd like to specially recognize all the Arts editors who have been with the project during and before the last two years. It's been a lot of fun, and we've created a great category!

In other news, Arts editors have done a great job this summer, creating a number of communities within our community. Music, Movies, and Celebrities are some of the groups of editors that have created their own threads where editors can discuss issues related to their category. Photography is going through a major reorganization, and the Arts Cleanup Force has swung into action.

- Jschwart

Business

It has been an interesting three months with discussions and reorganizations of transportation and regional subdivisions coming to the fore. The Business/Industries/Transportation/Aviation/Airports category has been revamped particularly the By Region subcategories with all sites listed in the Business category also double listed in Regional, it now provides a substantive resource for airport users at both national and locality level.

Railways are being reorganized, and although Machine Shops and Licensed Investigators seem unlikely bedfellows, both have been the subject of similar reorganizations which will be of particular interest to editors considering regional subdivision of topical areas.

Other areas of interest include discussions on moving Photographers from Arts to Business, and discussions of Trade Shows and Bar Codes.

- DDRJ

Computers

Flame and other Computing editors have been working to clean up the Free E-mail categories. The descriptions in the categories were running amok. Standard, helpful descriptions are spreading through these categories.

Over in Linux, lexib continues to lead a cleanup of these comprehensive categories. Find out the current status of the project or areas where you can contribute in the forums.

Looking for a new project? Computers has a number of categories with plenty of unreviewed. Check out Help Wanted and apply for a category.

Games

The newest development in Games is the reorganization of Card and Board Games. Despite what you may have thought, low-tech games still do exist!

The Sims category continues to receive lots of deserved attention -- I have a sneaking suspicion the game may be many of our editor's favorites. Another interesting category that has received attention is the Linux Video Games category, lead by the always perceptive and innovative enarra.

- Jschwart

Health

The Health Mentoring team continues to welcome new ODP editors. Some of the "senior" Health editors have each adopted a branch of Health, welcoming and mentoring new editors in those areas. Editing in Health has been very smooth thanks to the efforts and leadership of these and all Health editors.

Apeuro and other editors are currently working to build a new category for Addictions. Check out the test category and lend your editorial insights in the discussion thread.

Another recent addition to Health is a comprehensive Melatonin category. Recently Melatonin has been well hyped as a sleep aid for travelers fighting jet-lag and insomniacs. Explore the links in this category to separate fact from fiction regarding this natural hormone.

Kudos to editor sparrows regarding the expansion and reorganization of Art Therapy to Expressive Therapies. This category now encompasses art, dance, movement, music and play therapies. The category originally had around 146 sites now has well over 230!

- Shara

Home

Editors in Home have been cleaning up some categories that have outgrown their taxonomies. The last three months in particular as been very productive as several editors have enthusiastically and competently taken a leadership role in clearing up some taxonomy problems.

Home/Cooking/Baking and Confections has grown to over 600 sites, now, and a new top level category, Desserts, has been created to get users quickly to the recipe page of their choice. The experimental Cooking/Techniques category has matured and content has been tightened to include a great set of how-to sites for the novice and gourmet cooks. New categories have also been added, such as a well-developed Sandwiches category which includes everything from Finger sandwiches to Spreads and Fillings.

Cooking safety and other kinds of consumer information have been examined with an eye to redoing the taxonomy. The huge influx of consumer information sites 18 months ago necessitated a reorg not long after, but editors are looking again at CI and its relationship to some of the Society/Issues and Business categories.

The Parenting categories are being revisited to eliminate duplications in single parenting categories and a better organization of the Resources category which has great content, but is in need of more specific placement.

Home, always a pleasant place to edit, is in need of more editors to join the great group of friendly editors already helping out. If you've got a homebody side, come on over and apply to edit in one of the categories in need of editors.

- Dmozmarch

Kids and Teens

Since the last newsletter, newbie and veteran Editors have answered the call for help and Kids & Teens has an excellent team working hard to make it the best Kids Directory out there. Categories that are in the process of an overhaul thanks to the efforts of these fine folks are: Mammals, Television, and Toys.

For the kiddos who are getting ready for school, there will be two new categories to help out with homework: Transportation and Agriculture. In addition, Marine Life has nearly tripled in size with Editor, cajunfries, at the helm. New Categories in Teen Life include Runaways and Teen Sexuality/Gay Lesbian and Bisexual which debuted just in time for National Gay Pride Month in June.

As a final note, don't be surprised if somewhere in the future you see Kids and Teen Directories in the different World categories. Once we reach adolescence we will be having some growing pains and will want to mature and branch out into the different languages of the ODP. Nothing is being started just yet but it is in discussion so stay tuned.

- lindyhop123

Science

Several new and interesting categories have sprung up in Science over the past 2 months. Consider Phrenology, which is the study of the relationships between a person's character and the morphology of the skull. So what does that bump on your head say about you? Continuing through the social sciences, there is another newish category for Ethnomethodology. In simple terms ethnomethodology is the study of the ways in which people make sense of their social world.
Over in Biology learn about Endophytes in their new category. From the category description, "Endophytes are a type of symbiosis in which a fungus lives inside a vascular plant, generally in the leaf or stem."

Elsewhere in Science cleanups and reorganizations have occurred in Plant Pathology and Archaeology. Interested in Cryptography? It has been crying out for a knowledgeable editor to rescue it for over a year. Share your knowledge in this thread, begun a little while back. Check out Help Wanted for more categories needing a caring editor.

- Shara

Society

Society editors continue their loyal efforts to stay on top of their own categories, both in content and taxonomy, while being ever-vigilant to including new issues and topics.

As tabloid news and terminology become mainstream, Crime editors responded by renaming Famous Trials to Trials and expanding the taxonomy to include many more specific subcats. The literary genre name True Crime was disbanded in favor of an expanded set of subcats, including Criminals and Victims. Uncertain victims, such as Chandra Levy, continue to be placed under Missing People, in the heart-wrenching Personals category. Want a walk on the dark side? Check out the "new" Society/Crime category.

Reorganizations and taxonomy discussions also continue in aspects of History, aspects of Christianity, and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual issues. Christian editors continue to work on placing Denominations and religious specialty organizations that are denomination-like. History continues to develop; most recently editors are examining the place of historiography and historians. If you haven't visited History recently, take a look.

Editors in Society/People have had a productive quarter also. They have focused on revising Women and new category Generation X, among others. And if you can't find anything entertaining to read in Penguin Café, trot on over and read the fascinating discussion about "People who think they are fantasy creatures" which took place several months ago and led to another new category in Society/People.

- Dmozmarch

Sports

Reorganizations and cleanups are currently taking place in Equestrian, Lacrosse, Badminton, Golf, and my personal favorite, Running.

Newly arrived editors are learning the ropes in a new forum, and the relatively new category create and delete billboard has been a great success. Editors are also carefully paying attention to @links and altlangs in Sports.

- Jschwart