Open Site


Open-Site, the Open Encyclopedia Project was a free internet encyclopedia operated by Michael J. Flickinger in an effort to build a free categorized community-built encyclopedia, inspired by DMOZ. The Open Site software is open source under the Mozilla Public License and the content was free content under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Category system

The Open-Site encyclopedia used an ontology based on that of DMOZ.
Open-Site had the following main categories, under which most content was organized in several layers of subcategories:
In addition to these major topical English categories, the Open-Site encyclopedia also had the following other top-level categories.
The main page of Open Site stated: "Open-Site is edited by volunteer editors and its content is freely available for everyone under the GNU Free Documentation License."
The live pages and an RDF file were both available for public use, provided an appropriate notation of credit was provided. Open-Site listed nine websites that used its data.

Open Site children's encyclopedia

In August 2004 the Open Site Foundation launched a children's encyclopedia based on the Open Site encyclopedia and the Kids and Teens section of DMOZ. It was formed by a group of editors from both projects. Open-Site Meta Editor and DMOZ KCatmv editor lufiaguy originated the idea.
The new encyclopedia aimed to provide mostly original content written specifically for children.

Open-Site Charter

Open Site operated under a charter written by the founders of Open Site when it started in 2002. The key elements of the charter were:
October 2, 2007: Michael J. Flickinger released Open Site 2.0. The new version allowed the general public to apply for editing privileges at Open Site. The content was then reviewed by Open Site managers before being published.
In 2012, the encyclopedia was abandoned and replaced with a listing of colleges and universities.