I came to know Randy Escalada while getting the ODP profile of a domain I was interested in. Randy is one of the editors of the Open Directory Project (ODP), one of the most sought after directories by SEOs.
You can contact Randy via his ODP Profile page here. His personal site can be found here.
Marc: For the benefit of the uninitiated, can you give us a short background on ODP?
Randy: ODP is the largest human edited directory with content licensed for open distribution. The collective work of the 70,000+ editors is released weekly as RDF dumps are which may be freely downloaded. Hundreds of directories use the ODP data and some of the most popular sites are Google (for Google Directory), Netscape Search, AOL Search and Opera Search. To get listed in ODP, you submit your site to an appropriate category just like in Yahoo! but the difference is your submission gets reviewed by a volunteer and no fee is charged to get listed right away.
Marc: I understand it’s volunteer work, but do editors get absolutely nothing for their services?
Randy: I think what editors get from volunteering in ODP is watching their categories grow and seeing how much they’ve contributed to the project and to the entire Internet community.
Marc: Are there other Filipinos in the editor pool?
Randy: Oh yes, there are a lot of us. Editor timestopper is a pinoy based in Geneva who works mostly with French websites. Most of the other Filipinos are listed in the subcategories of Regional/Asia/Philippines such as theofrenz.
Marc: With over 70,ooo editors on board why is it that some quarters are saying that it takes forever to get listed on DMOZ? This seems to be a regular issue for most webmasters.
Randy: Well, not all editors are involved in listing down sites. Other editors are more concerned with the structure of the the categories they have. For example, when Drugs_and_Medications started to grow, the editors found the need to keep that area systematic. Should sites be categorized by generic name? By the diseases the drugs are supposed to cure? By brand names? By manufacturer? Or by country, perhaps? Many editors spend days and days discussing and debating how they believe the sites about drugs should be categorized. Other higher editors prefer to be involved in mentoring the newer ones. Others would merely go around the directory and look for listings (usually titles and descriptions) which do not conform to the guidelines and correct them. There is so much to be done so everyone interested is encouraged to apply to be an editor.
Marc: In the current Web ecosystem, what role does the ODP play?
Randy: ODP with its army of volunteers lists sites faster and has more content than the current commercial web directory leader. Sites get reviewed without webmasters having to pay for faster listing. It has provided various directories with content for free.
Marc: Which commecial web directory leader are we talking about here?
Randy: I’m talking about Yahoo!
Marc: Any other commercial directories that come to mind?
Randy: I can’t think of other big commercial directories right now. Google Directory uses ODP data.
November 18th, 2005 at 1:00 PM
awesome interview!
January 6th, 2006 at 1:37 PM
As a fellow ODP Editor (although still pretty new) I have to say that this network of humans is the biggest I have seen in any type of ‘organisation’.
Hospitals, Governments, Schools etc all with a large number of people involved in the management / running (still not equal to the quantity found editing the ODP) have nowhere near as much order, style and professionalism about them. And they get paid!
Well done to all at ODP, it really opens your eyes and makes you see what is really possible with a little thinking and organising.
January 6th, 2006 at 2:56 PM
I’ve applied for editorship to some fairly small categories before but I have yet to receive a response. Guess it’s a what-you-know and who-you-know game :)
January 11th, 2006 at 6:08 PM
“Guess it’s a what-you-know and who-you-know game”?
i don’t think so. sometimes, it’s just luck. if the editors in the categories you applied for aren’t all that active, it may be months before they see that people have applied.
then again, they may be wary of you =)