Some recent posts at XODP have highlighted the problems that the Zeal
directory (< http://www.zeal.com/ >) has been encountering with
exploiting volunteer labor. Of course, these posts prompted one of
the clue-impaired ODP cheerleaders lurking at XODP to try to hijack
the discussions and convert them into one of how the late great ODP
is purportedly "one of the last bastions of non-monetization on the
web." After a couple of follow-ups wherein I stated the obvious
flaws in this assertion and recapitulated ODP's obvious shortcomings,
I decided that any further responses to this particular individual
would simply distract from the real story, which is the fact that
some people are finally taking my advice and starting their own small
scale web directories. Even more interesting to me is the fact that
some people have successfully reinvented the concept of community-
built web indexing.

I gave up on the concept of web indexing communities a while back,
and yet there are some entrepreneurs who have not. I met up with
some of these entrepreneurs at Search Engine Strategies (SES) San
Jose 2005 (< http://www.jupiterevents.com/sew/summer05/ >), and I was
pleasantly surprised to find out that they have successfully
addressed many of the shortcomings that both ODP and Zeal have failed
and refused to address. Even more important to me was the fact that
these entrepreneurs were accomplishing their goals of indexing the
web without exploiting volunteer labor, and yet still providing
opportunities for volunteers to contribute their time and talents.

A few years back, Disney pulled the plug on the Go web directory, and
many of the volunteers who had been working on the Go directory ended
up at GoGuides.Org (< http://www.goguides.org/ >). By embracing the
paid submission model pioneered by LookSmart, the GoGuides community
has begun to thrive. A key ingredient to the success of GoGuides is
the fact that GoGuides who have demonstrated their ability to process
submissions are being recruited as paid staff. Meanwhile, other
volunteers who have no interest in being compensated are left to tend
their own gardens.

Sharing the booth with GoGuides.Org at SES San Jose 2005 was Best of
the Web. (< http://www.botw.org/ >.) Best of the Web was founded in
1994 by a group of students at the University of Buffalo, pioneering
the concept of Web Awards long before there was an ODP, and Best of
the Web is now growing its business around the paid submission
directory model. Like GoGuides.Org, Best of the Web is compensating
its contributors, and Best of the Web's CEO Brian J. Prince told me
that they have been recruiting XODP editors who are looking for paid
editing work.

Recognizing that many people who are in the search engine
optimization (SEO) business would like to submit and edit their own
sites, both GoGuides.Org and Best of the Web have programs for
resellers, webmasters, and SEO professionals.
(< http://www.goguides.org/DIR/membership.html >;
< http://www.botw.org/helpcenter/resellers.aspx >.) Simply put,
rather than champion some quixotic notion that the web should not be
monetized, free submissions are allowed at both GoGuides.Org and Best
of the Web, and professional content providers who want special
treatment for their listings are required to pay a fee for such
special treatment.

Given the success of indexing communities like GoGuides.Org and Best
of the Web, I think that it's now only a matter of time before the powers that
be at ODP give up on the self-aggrandizing rhetoric of
the ODP Social Contract and implement a paid submissions model to
monetize their backlog of some 2 million unreviewed sites. Either
that, or they'll just pull the plug on ODP like Disney did with the
Go directory.

The only thing that's really missing from the paid submission model
as it is being employed by GoGuides.Org and Best of the Web is open
content distribution. However, when I met GoGuides, Inc. President
Robert Barger at SES, he assured me that open content distribution
was something that he would be happy to embrace. To wit, open
content distribution would give GoGuides.Org site submitters an added
incentive to submit their sites to GoGuides.Org. On that note,
whenever someone completes the site submission process at GoGuides.Org, they are
directed to submit their site to Best of the
Web and/or Gimpsy. (< http://www.gimpsy.com/ >;
< http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xodp/message/2169 >.)

Humbly Yours,

XODP Moderator netesq