by Andrew Engelbrecht, FSD Community volunteer

Over the past six months I have been volunteering on the Free Software Directory, a database that lists over six thousand free software projects. It's now written using Semantic MediaWiki (SMW), which extends MediaWiki with numerous features for querying and displaying data. But, even more importantly, it allows for contributions by everyone, from submitting bugs against outdated version and license information, to suggesting new entries for the database.

SMW's flexibility has also allowed for the creation of RSS news feeds that list recently added or updated entries to the database. And that's just the beginning of what can be done.

I think that this directory is a great resource for the free software community, one that will certainly improve with time, considering the volunteer spirit of the hackers who have made all the free software listed there.

We are looking for administrators who are willing to help curate and expand the database, while bringing the most popular projects' information up to date. Anyone who is interested in making improvements to SMW code and adding new features is also welcome to join.

Visit our Participate page on the Free Software Directory.