Talk:Public domain search engine for students

Where should we build a public domain search?

I left this note on the article page:

Note: This project is currently inactive (information based on email communications). To help build a public domain search engine, see Appropedia's Public Domain Search. Appropedia is happy to cooperate if there is any need to adapt the search for OLPC's needs. (See the talk page.) --Chriswaterguy 08:21, 18 February 2008 (EST)

What I'm unclear on is whether students need their own public domain search engine. My suggestion is that it's best to collaborate on a single effective search engine. --Chriswaterguy 08:21, 18 February 2008 (EST)

(Is there a verb missing here?) "Whether students (verb) their own public domain search engine." Fixed now, thanks - Chris] +1 to collaboration if duplication of work can be avoided, at least in development of source to customize for different running instances of an engine, though. Mchua 16:31, 18 February 2008 (EST)

Yep - I'm being careful to open source it, sharing documentation and data (lists of included and excluded sites). Mainly on open source principles, but also because if I don't work on it for a month, I need the documentation, too :). --Chriswaterguy 18:09, 18 February 2008 (EST)

Gotcha - awesome. Maybe a SoCon project could happen to help you push it forward. Mchua 19:19, 18 February 2008 (EST)

That would be great! I expect it will be a very effective search engine by then, but further improvements will still be good. And a SoCon project is probably best to focus on identifying and porting public domain content that would be of use to the users of XO's. --Chriswaterguy 19:42, 18 February 2008 (EST)