AOL Search Looking Into DMOZ
I logged into the editor forums at the DMOZ or ODP (Open Directory Project) and there was new update on December 10, 2006.
I find it worthy enough for mainstream release, so I’m gong to mention a few things here in the interest of public information. Initially after posting this entry I was contacted about a potential confidentiality breach, so I have edited out some of the specifics (like direct quotes), but still have relayed the main idea below.
The editor server at DMOZ has been down since October. The ODP is waiting for three activities to be completed before anything can go start working again. They are
1. rsync the editor servers
2. autostart the process that publishers the html pages
3. install a perl module that is required for the editor function.
Additionally they estimate this will take a few days to complete, but they’re not sure where they are “in line” for the Ops to begin work on it. So they have no idea when the above three things will happen.
The staff at the ODP put in a specific request to get access themselves and have one of their developers fix the problem, but they have not received the ok. Officially ODP is a product and under complete control of the AOL Search business unit. All decisions on the future of the ODP rest with them, which include if they are going to close, continue or move in a new direction.
The short term goal as I understand it is to simply restore everything to way it was before in maintenance mode, acknowledging that this would not work in the long term and that a potential positive effect from this crash is reknewed interest by the AOL Search business unit as to what to do with the ODP.
The staff at the ODP have started a plea to begin a visioning discussion of what we would all like to see ODP become.
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