Open Directory Project Adopts Debian Social Contract

An anonymous reader says "The Open Directory Project is owned by AOL/Netscape and the status of the copyright and amount of corporate interest has always been a question. In light of a coming copyright revision, the staff was urged to give something back to assure that the volunteers contributing to the directory would not be taken advantage of, as they were with CDDB/Gracenote. The Debian social contract was brought up and was met with surprising support from Netscape. Here is the ODP's social contract. It's seen as a great triumph for the volunteer community that has worked so hard on the largest human edited directory on the web." I was always skeptical of dmoz, but I'm pleased to see this step taken. Now if only Gracenote would be good enough to do the same. Oh wait, that would imply that they had souls.

Comments

Oops - Open Mouth, insert foot

[Bruce Perens]

Oops, I just found the Debian credit. Open Mouth, Insert Foot. These things happen once in a while. I'll go back to what I was doing now. Sorry.

Bruce

Not a license, a "promise"

[GodHead]

That's real nice till you look one link deeper and see...

<I>By using the Open Directory Project (ODP) in any way you are agreeing to comply with these terms, which we may update without notice and encourage you to check back here at any time</i>

So what they are saying is - "We'll play nice until we decide we don't want to anymore."

Re:What happens if they break it?

[jordandeamattson]

You take them to court.

This document is a contract. It might not look like a contract, but it is an agreement entered into by two parties with an exchange of favors.

Until they change it, it is binding on them and you - if you agree to it. If they change it, the current version governs any content submitted up to the change.

If they break it, then you take them to court. You get an order compelling them to honor the agreement. Since they didn't outline a limitation of damages, you could also seek damages from them.

I have worked in a lot of big companies. I am surprised that something this straight-forward, clean, and "right", was able to make it out into the world.

Distributed bias

[gentlewizard]

I find the idea of having lots of decentralized editors, each responsible for one small area, very appealing. The opportunity for distortion or bias is confined to each editor's individual subject.

It reminds me of Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion World Map, which divides the earth into lots of triangles, then localizes map distortion into each triangle. The net result is that overall, the map is very accurate. In contrast, the Mercator Projection localizes all its error at the edge, so Greenland looks larger than North America.

In the same way, having lots of subject editors instead of one company doing the editing should in theory localize the bias to individual subjects. Chances are better that the Open Directory as a whole will be less biased.