PlanetMath
 | |
Type of site | Online encyclopedia |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | PlanetMath.org, Ltd. |
| Created by |
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| URL | planetmath |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | GitHubaccount required to edit sources via pull request |
| Current status | Inactive |
Content license | CC BY-SA |
PlanetMathis afree,collaborative,mathematicsonline encyclopedia.Intended to be comprehensive, the project is currently hosted by theUniversity of Waterloo.The site is owned by a US-based nonprofit corporation, "PlanetMath.org, Ltd".[1]
PlanetMath was started when the popular free online mathematics encyclopediaMathWorldwas temporarily taken offline for 12 months by a court injunction as a result of theCRC Presslawsuit against theWolfram Researchcompany and its employee (and MathWorld's author)Eric Weisstein.
Materials[edit]
The main PlanetMath focus is onencyclopedicentries. It formerly operated a self-hosted forum, but now encourages discussion viaGitter.
An all-inclusive PlanetMathFree Encyclopediabook of 2,300 pages is available for the encyclopedia contents up to 2006 as a free download PDF file.[2]
Content development model[edit]
PlanetMath implements a specific content creation system calledauthority model.[3]
An author who starts a new article becomes itsowner,that is the only person authorized to edit that article. Other users may add corrections and discuss improvements but the resulting modifications of the article, if any, are always made by the owner. However, if there are long lasting unresolved corrections, the ownership can be removed. More precisely, after two weeks the system starts to remind the owner by mail; at six weeks any user can "adopt" the article; at eight weeks the ownership of the entry is completely removed (and such an entry is called "orphaned" ).
To make the development more smooth, the owner may also choose to grant editing rights to other individuals or groups.
The user can explicitly create links to other articles, and the system also automatically turns certain words into links to the defining articles. The topic area of every article is classified by theMathematics Subject Classification(MSC) of theAmerican Mathematical Society(AMS).
The site is supervised by the Content Committee. Its basic mission is tomaintain the integrity and quality of the mathematical content and organization of PlanetMath.[4]As defined in its Charter, the tasks of the Committee include:
- Developing/maintaining the standards for PlanetMath content
- Improving individual PlanetMath entries in its Encyclopedia, Book, Paper, and Exposition)
- Developing topic areas
- Developing/improving site and user documentation
- Managing the PlanetMath Request list and Unproved Theorems list
- Improving categorization and other meta-attributes of entries.
- Developing software recommendations for improved content authoring and editorial functions.
Technical details[edit]
PlanetMath content is licensed under thecopyleftCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. All content is written inLaTeX,a typesetting system popular among mathematicians because of its support of the technical needs of mathematical typesetting and its high-quality output.
PlanetMath originally used software written inPerland running onLinuxand the web serverApache.It was known asNoösphereand has been released under the freeBSD License.PlanetMath retired Noösphere in favor of another piece of software calledPlanetary,implemented withDrupal.
Related projects[edit]
Encyclopedic content and bibliographic materials related tophysics,mathematicsandmathematical physicsare developed byPlanetPhysics.The site, launched in 2005, uses similar software (Noosphere), but a significantly different moderation model with emphasis on current research in physics and peer review.[5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Self-descriptions of PM"Archived copy".Archivedfrom the original on 2016-08-26.Retrieved2009-05-15.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link),"Planetmath.org | Math for the people, by the people".Archivedfrom the original on 2016-06-11.Retrieved2008-05-02."Helping PlanetMath".Archived fromthe originalon 2008-05-09.Retrieved2009-05-19. - ^PlanetMath "Free Encyclopedia"bookArchivedJune 20, 2016, at theWayback Machinebased on 2004-2005 content of PlanetMath
- ^Noosphere'sArchivedMarch 4, 2016, at theWayback Machineauthority model
- ^Username *."ContentCommittee Charter".Planetmath.org. Archived fromthe originalon 2010-11-26.Retrieved2013-09-06.
- ^PlanetPhysics.orgArchivedFebruary 25, 2009, at theWayback Machine
External links[edit]
- Official website
- "PlanetPhysics".Archived fromthe originalon February 25, 2009.
- Klemm, Aaron E. (Feb 16, 2005)."Motivation and value of free resources: Wikipedia and Planetmath show the way".Free Software magazine.
- "Motivation and value of free resources"(PDF).Free Software Magazine(1): 52–56. Feb 2005.
- "Web Projects: Grassroots Math Guide".Science.Netwatch.308(5729).AAAS:1721. 17 June 2005.doi:10.1126/science.308.5729.1721e.
- Lange, Christoph (2008). "SWiM – A Semantic Wiki for Mathematical Knowledge Management".The Semantic Web: Research and Applications.European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC). Vol. 5021. pp. 832–837.arXiv:1003.5196.doi:10.1007/978-3-540-68234-9_68.ISBN978-3-540-68233-2.S2CID167021.
- Milson, Robert; Krowne, Aaron (2005). "Adapting CBPP platforms for instructional use".arXiv:cs/0507028.
- Andrew, Alex M. (2008). "Archives, mathematics encyclopaedia, dancing robots, ASC".Kybernetes.37(9/10): 1466–1468.doi:10.1108/03684920810907805.