Q: What is the Digital Universe?
A: The vision of the Digital Universe is to organize the sum total of human knowledge and make it available to everyone.
The Digital Universe is a new, free, online information resource, a Web application that lets users view an editorially defined subset of the Web. Call it a PBS of the Internet. Running software hosted by ManyOne Networks, it lets users navigate through a visual taxonomy of nature and society. The taxonomy consists of expert-created portals (e.g. the Earth Portal, the Energy Portal). In any portal you will eventually find every type of information on that topic: websites, essays, encyclopedia articles, books, images, sounds, forums, etc., sorted by type.
It is being built by a growing group of experts who soon will be working with the broader public. It is a multifaceted project; you can expect the largest and most reliable information resource in history to be rather complex. It is being built by a growing group of experts who soon will be working with the broader public. You can see a beta version on the Web now at digitaluniverse.net. It is a multifaceted project; you can expect the largest and most reliable information resource in history to be rather complex. We think that if you try it out, you'll see that it becomes quite intuitive.
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Q: What is the Digital Universe trying to achieve? What's the goal?
A: Our aim is to make the Digital Universe into the most reliable and largest information resource and content development community in history, and in time to combine an exhaustive Internet directory with a library, collaborative encyclopedia, and much more.
In episode twelve of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, the visionary astronomer borrows an idea from the writings of Isaac Asimov and proposes that someday there may exist an Encyclopedia Galactica: a compendium of knowledge based on the cumulative achievements of a galaxy-spanning civilization with thousands of years of history. Amazingly, a quarter century later the tools to initiate that are available in the World Wide Web. A global collaboration aiming to organize and make available, eventually, the sum total of human knowledge can begin today. The technology is now available to start such an open-ended, generation-spanning project. All that is needed is a plan and a catalyst to set the gears in motion. That is the role and goal of the Digital Universe.
Πηγή:Digital Universe FAQ
http://www.digitaluniverse.net/
