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Editor:  ottodv

Name:	Otto de Voogd
Email:	Send to ottodv
Home Page:	http://www.7is7.com/otto/
ICQ #:	420053852
	ottodv's bookmarks (73)
Photo:

Computers: Internet: Searching: OpenSearch  (11)
Computers: Software: Internet: Clients: WWW: Browsers: Firefox  (275)
Computers: Software: Operating Systems: Linux  (2,362)
Reference: Dictionaries: World Languages: E: Estonian  (7)
Reference: Education: Colleges and Universities: Europe: Estonia  (22)
Regional: Asia: Georgia  (342)
Regional: Europe  (275,011)
Regional: Europe: Estonia  (1,784)
Regional: Europe: Estonia: Harjumaa: Tallinn  (485)
Regional: Europe: Latvia  (403)
Regional: Europe: Lithuania  (553)
Regional: Europe: Regions: Baltic Sea  (46)
Regional: Europe: Regions: Baltics  (57)
Regional: Europe: Regions: Central and Eastern Europe  (54)
Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Uralic  (132)
Society: Ethnicity: Finnic  (59)
Society: Government: Multilateral: Regional: Schengen Convention  (11)
World: Eesti  (1,308)
World: Eesti: Regioonid: Euroopa: Eesti  (225)
World: Nederlands: Regionaal: Europa  (2,012)

Projects

Status	Project	Area	Leader
Active	Editor Day/Weekend 2008	Volunteer Development	laigh

A short introduction.

Interests

I have been interested in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ever since they were trying to gain independence from the Soviet Union. Soon after independence I visited the countries. Estonia in particular made a strong impression on me and although I continued to live and work in the Netherlands I returned to Estonia regularly. The country has changed considerably since independence, and is now one of the freest and most successful economies in Europe. After traveling around the world for 1000 days I finally moved to Tallinn in 2005.

Because I now live there, and use Estonian sites in daily life, I have spent a lot of time developing the category for Estonia. But I also helped to develop the categories of the two other Baltic countries and now also those for other European countries.

Besides editing Estonian categories for the Open Directory Project I am also busy trying to make and publish photos of all major sights in Estonia on my website, as well as maintaining a Google custom search for Estonia.

The European Union and European integration are also topics that interest me, specifically topics like our common currency, the Euro, and the Shengen area, thanks to which we can now travel from Tallinn to Lisbon without any border controls.

In the field of information technology; I develop StatEye, an open source software package for the analysis of website traffic, I volunteer for the Access Firefox project, which offers accessibility tools for Firefox, founded Spread Open Source a community dedicated to promoting the use of open source software and open standards, create resources for Firefox and sometimes even make games like Browser War Checkers, a web-game themed on the current browser war.

These interests also led me to start editing open source related categories for the Open Directory Project. Specifically those for Firefox and Linux.

Editing

The work of an editor involves building a category in a subject in which he or she is interested. We do this by looking and searching for interesting sites about the topic. Sometimes we also use sites suggested by the public, but most listed sites never got suggested, especially the more important and useful ones, such as official sites of governments, embassies, universities, schools, public transport, or sites about interesting topics such as history or science. So this really leaves us no choice but to look for them ourselves.

However developing categories is not limited to adding and reviewing sites. It also involves building category structures and linking between them, sorting sites to the most fitting category, writing category descriptions, adding and creating mozzies, and updating search strings. For example I have created a few mozzies for several categories.

In May 2008 I became editall/catmv for the Open Directory Project, which means that I can theoretically edit anywhere, but my focus is on the categories about subjects in which I am interested (which are mostly the categories listed at the top of this page). Though I occasionally help out in other parts as well, especially when it concerns quality control.

Join Us

The Open Directory Project is constantly looking for volunteers who want to help develop categories they are knowledgeable about. If you have an interest in a particular topic, please look for the category for that topic and consider applying to become an editor. For your application to be successful read the instructions and any feedback you get carefully.

If you can't join, you can also help us by suggesting good sites that are not yet included in the directory. For example sites that you use or have found to be useful. Write a good title and description and find the most appropriate category to suggest it to. An editor will almost certainly appreciate a well written objective description for a quality site.

P.S. The original copy of my profile on DMOZ is also the most recent version.

Awards