| Active Distributed Computing Projects - Collaborative Knowledge Bases |
|
These links take you to other project categories on this site:
Mathematics Language Art Puzzles/Games Miscellaneous Distributed Human Projects Collaborative Knowledge Bases Charity See the bottom of this page for a description of the icons on the page. |
| Project Information | Project % Complete | Major Supported Platforms |
|---|---|---|
Help build "the largest, most comprehensive human-edited
directory of the Web" in the dmoz Open
Directory Project.
dmoz also maintains collections of links to other knowledge bases:
|
ongoing: sites; editors; categories |
N/A |
The WWW Virtual Library is
"the oldest catalog of the web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of
HTML and the web itself." It is compiled by volunteers who make lists
of links for areas in which they are expert.
|
ongoing | N/A |
Contribute to Nupedia, the open content
encyclopedia, the world's largest international, peer-reviewed
encyclopedia. The project needs writers, editors and peer reviewers, copy
editors, programmers, translators, graphic and audio artists, and casual
participants.
|
ongoing | N/A |
Contribute to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, "a collaborative project to produce a
complete encyclopedia from scratch." In January, 2003, the project reached
its first goal of making over 100,000 encyclopedia articles. On February 2,
2004, the project reached 200,000 articles. On July 7, 2004, the project
reached 300,000 articles. On September 21, 2004, the project
reached 1 million articles.
On September 9, 2007, the project reached 2 million articles.
On August 17, 2009, the English Wikipedia reached 3 million articles. "The three million articles have emerged through the contributions of more
than 10 million registered users, who have in turn created more than 17 million
pages and performed more than 326 million edits on the English Wikipedia's
database." Everyone is welcome to
contribute to the project. The encyclopedia is available in many
non-English
languages.
|
ongoing:
content pages; total pages |
N/A |
Contribute to
Wiktionary, "a collaborative project to produce a free and complete
multilingual dictionary and thesaurus in every language. Wiktionary is the
lexical companion to the open content encyclopaedia
Wikipedia."
|
ongoing:
content pages; total pages |
N/A |
Contribute to
Wikinews, "a free content news source"
which will "collaboratively report and summarize news on all subjects from a
neutral point of view." Everyone is welcome to
contribute to the project. Wikinews is available in many languages.
|
ongoing:
content pages; total pages |
N/A |
Contribute to
Wikibooks, "a collection of open-content
textbooks that anyone can edit." Everyone is welcome to
contribute to the
project. Wikibooks is available in many languages.
|
ongoing:
content pages, total pages |
N/A |
Contribute to
Wikispecies, "an open, free
directory of species. This will cover animalia, plantae, fungi, bacteria,
archaea, protista and all other forms of life to the extent that our users
allow us." Everyone is welcome to
contribute to
the project. Wikispecies is available in many languages.
|
ongoing:
content pages, total pages | N/A |
Help to
Wikia Search create an open-source
search engine which allows users to search the Internet with an open, objective,
accountable search tool. This project is based on the following 4 principles:
|
ongoing: 16,143 content pages |
N/A |
Contribute music CD or MP3 meta data to
MusicBrainz, an "an open music
encyclopedia" which "contains numerous facts, specifically about artists,
their albums, and tracks." The meta data can be used freely by any
individual or company, and is owned by no one.
|
ongoing: 6,014,462 tracks, 509,867 albums catalogued |
N/A |
FreeDB is another
database that stores meta data about music CDs. It is a free, public
database equivalent to the proprietary CDDB
database. You can access FreeDB through a web interface or through
FreeDB-aware software over the Internet. You can also contribute information
about new CDs to the database through FreeDB-aware software.
See the project's discussion forum. |
ongoing: 2,071,000 albums catalogued |
N/A |
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
is an online, web-based, free database with all the
information you could ever want about movies and anything related to movies.
It is available on servers in the U.S. and
the U.K., and is available in
Italian and
German. You can contribute new
information via a web interface or email. Disclaimer: this database
is owned by amazon.com and its knowledge is
not in the public domain. The project had its 15th anniversary on October
17, 2005.
See the project's message boards. |
ongoing | N/A |
Everything2
is [quoting from the website] "a very complex
online community with a focus to write, publish and edit a quality database of
information, insight and humor. When you make an account here you join not
only a team of dedicated writers but an entire micro-society and community
with its own pop culture, politics, beauty and blunders. It's not perfect.
In fact, it can be pretty messy. It's cool as hell, though..."
|
ongoing | N/A |
JoeAnt.com is a
search engine of hand-picked links and is maintained by a volunteer online
community. Join the project and help build the database.
|
ongoing | N/A |
 Logos is a "multilingual e-translation portal." It offers:
|
ongoing | N/A |
 Contribute to Open Site, the open encyclopedia project, a collection of knowledge contributed and edited by volunteers. The site is something between a dictionary and an encylopedia. All information in the project is freely available to anyone under an open contract. |
ongoing | N/A |
 Contribute new word definitions to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary. The project is documenting changes to the English language. |
ongoing | N/A |
 
Help
Where's George? track the geographic
movement of U.S. dollar bills. Participants enter the denomination, series,
and serial number of any U.S. dollar bill and their current U.S. ZIP code or
Canadian Post Code and they can see where the bill has been if it has been
entered before and see where it goes if it is entered again. The project is
only for fun and does not track participants' personal information.
Participants do not have to register unless they want to see where a bill
they've entered goes next. Although the project is for fun, it is
generating useful scientific knowledge:
mathematical models derived from the project are also being used to show the
geographic spread of infectious disease.
|
ongoing: currently tracking bills totaling |
N/A |
 
Help
Where's Willy? track the geographic
movement of Canadian bank notes. Participants enter the serial number of
any Canadian bank note and their current Canadian Postal Code or U.S. ZIP code
and they can see where the note has been if it has been entered before and
see where it goes if it is entered again. The project is only for fun and
does not track participants' personal information. Participants do not have
to register unless they want to see where a note they've entered goes next.
Although the project is for fun, it is
generating useful scientific knowledge:
mathematical models derived from the project are also being used to show the
geographic spread of infectious disease.
|
ongoing: currently tracking 2,747,908 notes totaling $41,266,190 |
N/A |
 
Help
EuroBillTracker track the
geographic movement of Euro notes around the world. Participants enter the
serial number of any Euro note and information about where and when they
had the note and they can see where the note has been if it has been entered
before and see where it goes if it is entered again. The project is only for
fun and does not track participants' personal information. Participants do
need to register to participate in the project.
|
ongoing: currently tracking 42,898,804 notes totaling €887,545,780 |
N/A |
Contribute to
WikiProfessional's life
sciences knowledge bases, such as WikiProteins. The goal for the WikiProteins
knowledge base is to build the base "by importing a huge amount of data from
existing databases, such as PubMed, Swiss-Prot, and the Gene Ontology database"
and to encourage life sciences professionals to edit and contribute to the
base.
|
ongoing:
unknown pages |
N/A |
Help Forvo build a
database of the proper pronunciation of every word in every language. Users
submit a word or a name they'd like to hear spoken in its native tongue.
Volunteers then record MP3 audio clips of themselves speaking one of these
words and other volunteers review each pronunciation for correctness.
|
ongoing:
words; pronunciations; languages |
N/A |
Help OpenStreetMap
create a map of the world. "OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole
world. It is made by people like you. OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit
and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth."
See more information about the project in the project's wiki,
beginner's guide,
and FAQ.
|
ongoing | N/A |
| The following icons may appear in the Supported Platforms section of the table: | |||||||||||||
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