The Digital Universe
The Digital Universe is a project of Larry Sanger, the creator of Wikipedia. He's asking "experts" to create the content. He wants it to be advertising free, supported by subscriptions and donations. Their first "portal" is the "Earth Portal", focused on environmentalism. They're also planning a "Health Portal", which will allow you to fly through a 3-D representation of the human body. They are using a new internet browser, sort of a Google Earth on steroids, created by ManyOne. The browser currently runs only on Windows XP and 2000. The Digital Universe is slated to launch sometime in 2006. You need an account to use it, and free accounts are available, but they ask for your snail mail address to get it.
I have no idea how much of this is hype, or what sort of political slant there will be on their content, but it looks interesting. I learned about it via email from Joe Firmage, who is on their board of directors. I don't know why Mr. Firmage put me on his mailing list.
Previous Posts:
"Bark" is gone. Friendship remains
The End of an Era: The Last of the Winchester Model 94
Al Gore is right, for once
Amtrak Antics
The Backhoe: A Real Cyberthreat
The Scanner Photography Project
Harebrained Pot and Wheat Decisions
Why a paper ticket if an SMS will do?
Compare and Contrast
Thinking about Loompanics going out of business