Centiare, the Free Directory, Invites Editors to Show Off Their Best Wiki Design Skills, and Be Paid For Their Efforts

Huntington Beach, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/15/2007 -- Centiare, the free Internet directory service that anyone can use, will be awarding $200 to the wiki editor whose Directory page design most impresses a select panel of five judges. A second prize of $50, plus honorable mention gifts of $25, will also be awarded on July 4th.

Co-founded by Karl Nagel and Gregory Kohs, the Centiare directory has been called the "anti-Wikipedia" for encouraging individuals and businesses to post articles about themselves –- a practice strictly forbidden by Wikipedia. Centiare contributors are encouraged to set up, protect, and promote their own directory pages. Initial contributors to Centiare include commercial enterprises, non-profit organizations, government entities, self-employed individuals, job-seekers, actors and artists.

"Wikipedia is known to reward its most productive editors with picture images of 'barnstars'. At Centiare, we give out money," said Kohs. Centiare is calling on contributors to create a new page on Centiare, utilizing all the best skills in generating original content, applying wiki markup, and designing a beautiful page. Entrants may choose any topic that is a legal entity, which has not yet been created on Centiare. This could include:

• Their self
• Their company
• A non-profit organization
• Their hometown
• Their favorite musician
• A website

Entries will be judged on a five-plank platform -– quality of content, use of wiki markup, style and beauty, monetization, and the overall reader experience. Applicants must submit their intention to participate before June 23, 2007, and the final entries are due June 30th.

The judging will be executed by Centiare's co-developers, Nagel and Kohs; wiki design expert and screenwriter, Garrett Minks; graphic design professional, Cheryl Levy; and a 25-year veteran of the printing industry.

About Centiare:

Centiare is a free online directory powered by the same collaboration and editing software used by Wikipedia. Unlike Wikipedia -– which does not allow individuals or companies to post or edit articles about themselves -– Centiare enables contributors to set up, protect, and promote directory pages to tell their own stories. Among its benefits to users, Centiare takes wiki software to the next level with semantic tagging and other enhancements that facilitate search engine optimization (SEO). Since its launch, Centiare has been featured in major newspapers such as the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, on sites such as MSNBC.com, and on the G4TV channel's "Attack of the Show".

References:

Centiare home page --
http://www.centiare.com

Information about the Centiare Prize --
http://www.centiare.com/Centiare_Prize_2007

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

The Site Attracts Hundreds of Contributors, Thousands of Articles in its First Two Months

Huntington Beach, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/22/2007 -- Centiare, the free Internet directory service that anyone can use, today announced that it has surpassed 4,000 directory articles and 150 registered users since its January 2007 launch. Centiare and its founders also have been featured in national television and newspaper coverage.

Co-founded by Karl Nagel and Gregory Kohs, the directory has been called the "anti-Wikipedia" for encouraging individuals and businesses to post articles about themselves –- a practice strictly forbidden by Wikipedia. Centiare contributors are encouraged to set up, protect, and promote their own directory pages. Initial contributors to Centiare include commercial enterprises, non-profit organizations, government entities, self-employed individuals, job-seekers, actors and artists.

"When you browse Centiare, you'll find promotional listings for businesses, informative descriptions of cities and states, self-revealing profiles of individuals looking for better ways than MySpace to express themselves, and even original academic research about topics as obscure as 'Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age'," said Kohs. "In particular, we are seeing many small- and medium-sized businesses posting elaborate business listings that blow away anything you'll find in a Yellow Pages book or other online listing."

Some of the businesses currently leveraging Centiare include Teksmart, a Los Angeles-based technology solutions provider; LunaGraphica, a Silicon Valley advertising and graphic design firm; and BIG Images, a large-format color printer which has included photos of its production facility within its listing.

"The listings go well beyond businesses," Kohs said. "We are very impressed with how one young film buff has created his own 'public domain theater', where visitors can watch any of 10 different feature length movies, right on Centiare. The theater includes embedded video feeds, images of original movie posters, and critical notes about the films."

Since its launch, Centiare has been featured in major newspapers such as the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, on sites such as MSNBC.com, and on the G4TV channel's "Attack of the Show."

Powered by the same collaboration and editing software used by Wikipedia, Centiare takes this functionality to the next level with semantic tagging and other enhancements that facilitate search engine optimization (SEO). Centiare also enables contributors to monetize their directory listings with advertising; upload videos, PDFs and other files; and to list their "friends" within their listings.

If you are an existing Wikipedia editor or familiar with the MediaWiki program, you can begin posting right away. Alternatively, you may ask one of Centiare's experienced editors to help you get started.

About Centiare
Centiare is a free online directory powered by the same collaboration and editing software used by Wikipedia. Unlike Wikipedia -– which does not allow individuals or companies to post or edit articles about themselves -– Centiare enables contributors to set up, protect, and promote directory pages to tell their own stories. Among its benefits to users, Centiare takes wiki software to the next level with semantic tagging and other enhancements that facilitate search engine optimization (SEO).

References

Centiare home page:
http://www.centiare.com

Teksmart directory page on Centiare:
http://www.centiare.com/Directory:TEKSMART

LunaGraphica directory page on Centiare:
http://www.centiare.com/Directory:LunaGraphica

BIG Images directory page on Centiare:
http://www.centiare.com/Directory:BIG_Images

Public domain theater on Centiare:
http://www.centiare.com/Directory:Minks_Theater_Presents

Television appearance on G4TV:
http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=14996

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Centiare continues its growth as a new wiki directory by taking the model of “personal ownership” of content and search engine optimization to higher levels. Centiare.com now invites independent authors, academic researchers, industry experts, and students to author encyclopedic content for the free directory.

Huntington Beach, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/18/2007 -- Centiare is a new online directory that opened to the public only a few short weeks ago. Already, nearly 3,000 articles have been created by about forty registered users. According to Alexa.com, in just the past two weeks, Centiare has overtaken 40,000 different web sites in daily traffic rank.

However, Centiare's founders recognize that the directory needs many more authoritative, reliably researched articles to continue growing with high-quality information. Thus, Centiare has established an Editorial Review Board which now invites independent authors, academic researchers, industry experts, and students to create encyclopedic content about the topics in which they excel. The three-member Board will review and evaluate nominated articles on a weekly basis. And, unlike Wikipedia, which has a policy against "ownership of content", Centiare administrators will protect winning articles from further editing, and authorship will be credited to the contributor, with a link to his or her own directory page.

The purpose of the Editorial Review Board is to reward the work of patient, thoughtful contributors who understand the importance and value of adding high-quality, neutral point-of-view content to Centiare, but who wish to see the fruit of their work go undisturbed by other editors. The Board will look for and expect four important criteria to be filled by nominated pages:

1. The topic shall be about an entity, action, event, or process that does not have standing in a court of law. For example, acceptable topics could range from "hurricane", to "fluorinated surfactants", to "Abraham Lincoln". Topics that do have standing in a court of law (such as "Barack Obama", "Ford Motor Company", or "United Way") are also welcome in Centiare's protected directory space – just not for this Editorial Review Board program.

2. The article shall include multiple relevant, accurate reference citations to noteworthy publications.

3. Any personal conflict of interest or bias of the author shall be deprecated in favor of a neutral point-of-view.

4. Content must not plagiarize other published works; except that the author(s) of the article may reconstitute their own previous copyrighted material, if they choose.

Articles meeting these criteria may be nominated by their primary author(s) to the Board on the project's discussion page. Every weekend, the Board will consider each active nomination and either approve the article as a "winner", return it for additional improvements, or reject it.

What are the benefits for winning authors?

An article selected for recognition by the Board will incorporate a semantic tag to record and relate the work to the pertinent author's directory listing. Centiare's founders hope that this will bring the author(s) the added fame of being contacted by reporters, bloggers, scholars, and other interested parties who wish to learn more about the subject. Authors are welcome to use Amazon.com Associates links to identify their reference sources. But, best of all, properly formatted articles in Centiare are beginning to show up at the very top of Google search engine results, so the Board's program is a quick and easy way for authors of respectable content to get "noticed" on the Internet.

Proof of these search engine optimization (SEO) results can be found by trying these search queries at Google:

* West Chester church shepherd -- -- A Centiare listing ranks #2 out of 873,000 results
* "heating oil" Hunterdon Somerset NJ -- -- A Centiare listing ranks #3 out of 481 results
* Littleton graphics stationery -- -- A Centiare listing ranks #1 out of 25,300 results
* "largest commercial printers" Orlando Florida -- -- A Centiare listing ranks #1 out of 127 results
* Florida stone crab scientific video -- -- A Centiare listing ranks #1 out of 121,000 results

The "stone crab" article in Centiare took its author about 10 minutes to create, and it now comes up first out of 121,000 Google search results. Imagine what careful, dedicated authors of encyclopedic content on Centiare could achieve. Authors who want to share in these amazing results should register at Centiare today.

REFERENCES:

Centiare home page:
http://www.centiare.com

Centiare Editorial Review Board:
http://www.centiare.com/Centiare:Editorial_Review_Board

Alexa traffic information about Centiare:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=centiare.com&site1=&site2=&site3=&site4=&y=t&z=3&h=300&w=500&range=1m&size=Medium&url=centiare.com

Wikipedia policy against ownership of articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ownership_of_articles

Amazon.com Associates program:
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join

Google search results for "stone crab" example:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-13%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=Florida+stone+crab+scientific+video&btnG=Search

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

A new wiki directory called Centiare has set itself up as the "anti-Wikipedia" that encourages contributors to take ownership of their own content in the directory, and even to monetize their editing efforts.

Huntington Beach, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/05/2007 -- Every month, about 150 million different Internet users visit Wikipedia to obtain information. At least a million of them have taken that next step, created an account, and edited the content within the world's largest encyclopedia. And that's when the trouble starts.

As everyday users (including businesses) get accustomed to reading and editing Wikipedia, a good portion of them quickly become frustrated by two things:

1. Their own personal opinion -– even expert opinion -– about a topic can be overruled by just one or two other users (who may even be children) who have no expertise on the subject.

2. An individual or a company is profoundly discouraged from writing anything about itself -– even to correct erroneous information in the article about its very self.

If you have noticed this yourself, take comfort -– there's a new wiki in town called Centiare. Its founders contend that it shouldn't be so difficult to express one's self in community-edited Internet space. Thus, by becoming what some industry observers are calling the "anti-Wikipedia", Centiare will be all things to all people. How is Centiare.com going to be different than Wikipedia?

First, users may not contribute to Centiare until they register and verify a non-throwaway e-mail address, so there is a higher degree of authenticity among contributors. This borrows a key operating tenet from the new Citizendium.org, which is a "fork" of Wikipedia headed by former Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, but has still not launched.

Second, contributors are encouraged to take ownership of Directory articles about themselves or their enterprises. They may write as opinionated advocates in the Directory -– neutrality is not required. They can sell products, promote YouTube videos, upload documents, even make money off Google ads they are allowed to host. Almost anything goes in the Centiare Directory space!

Third, (and this is the real kicker) "semantic web" technology is installed on Centiare. This means registered users can perform amazing searches on Centiare that just wouldn't be possible on Google, MySpace, or Wikipedia. Imagine multi-level searches for very specific things, like:

* Are there any white males, over 6 feet tall, with a Masters degree, in Pennsylvania?
* Locate all home heating oil companies, at least 50 years in business, in New Jersey.
* Find all Centiare Directory entities situated between the 39th and 40th parallels.

These searches would be practically impossible in a wiki database without semantic web enabled. It's no wonder that the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has literally written a roadmap for semantic web -– he knows it's that important. And Internet prognosticators are finally agreeing that in 2007, semantic web will usher in the "Web 3.0" era.

Right now, Centiare is up and running, waiting for more contributors to claim their Directory space and own it. At this time, users are even allowed to create Directory space articles about entities which they do not own or have a legal interest in. They can keep that space until the time when the rightful owner of the topic wakes up and claims it. For example, one Centiare user going by the screen name "OmniMediaGroup" has already grabbed some premium Centiare turf -– all 50 U.S. state names, as well as a couple dozen pharmaceutical companies. These pages must contain useful information about the topic, and of course, not libel the legal entity in any way; but, in the meantime, the author can monetize the space with Google ads or sale of products and services. Centiare's founders predict that this policy of "ownership" will beget quality, in terms of depth and accuracy of commercial and personal subject content.

A recent analysis of Wikipedia shows that more than half the companies that reside between the Fortune 501 and 1000 are utterly missing from Wikipedia, nearly six years after the encyclopedia's genesis. There is no motivating incentive for the typical Wikipedia volunteer to create these corporate pages; and if the large corporation tries to create an article about itself, Wikipedia editors spend more time bashing and chasing away the commercial effort than it would have taken them to write the article on their own. Centiare, by contrast, will embrace corporate participation in its Directory space.

Centiare's co-developer, Gregory Kohs, has been asked how Centiare is any different from MySpace, Wikia, or Wikipedia. He responds that Centiare is much like MySpace or Wikia for individuals, but contributors keep all the ad revenues, instead of News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch or Wikia's head Jimmy Wales. "We think they have enough money," he jokes. He also concedes that Centiare is a lot like Wikipedia, "but mainly because we use that same elegant, robust open-source software called MediaWiki that Wikipedia uses. We very much look like Wikipedia. Beyond that, we really are the libertarian opposite of Wikipedia."

Indeed, the MediaWiki software is the real muscle that has supported the success of Wikipedia and will drive Centiare. Its code developers -– the folks like Magnus Manske, Rob Church, Brion Vibber, and others -– are the thankless and tireless heroes who have made MediaWiki's stylistic appearance, navigation, and infobox templates things that make even "average" web surfers feel comfortably at home.

Centiare's founder, Karl Nagel, genuinely feels that the world is on the verge of an enormous breakthrough in MediaWiki applications. He says, "What Microsoft Office has been for the past 15 years, MediaWiki will be for the next fifteen." And Centiare will employ the most robust extension of that software, Semantic MediaWiki.

Indeed, Centiare is on to something. According to Alexaholic.com, on the final day of 2006, Centiare.com recorded more page views than the combined traffic of four of its wiki rivals: Yellowikis.com, Wikicompany.org, Citizendium.org, and Openserving.com (a yet-to-be-launched product of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales).


REFERENCES:

Centiare home page:
http://www.centiare.com

Idea Grove review of Centiare:
http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/2006/12/move-over-yellow-pages-here-comes.html

Podcast discussing Centiare as "anti-Wikipedia":
http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/01/01/the-hobson-holtz-report-podcast-202-january-1-2007/

Prediction of the demise of Wikipedia:
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2006/12/wikipedia_will_1.htm

Coming soon -- Semantic web:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3934

Alexaholic traffic stats:
http://www.alexaholic.com/centiare.com+yellowikis.com+wikicompany.org+citizendium.org+openserving.com?y=p&r=7d&z=0

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm