--- koyaanisqatsi@nupedia.com wrote:

Anthere Wrote:

...

--- Gareth Owen wiki@gwowen.freeserve.co.uk

wrote:

...

...

Anthere anthere5@yahoo.com writes:

...

But, from a conceptual point of view, that is

certainly not a portal. That's

...

an *english* main page, with links to other

languages. Sorry, but I like

...

words to be used in their context.

What the hell *is* a portal (besides a internet buzzword from about 1997)

Is this type of question designed to make me sound

as

...

if I had absolutely no idea what I am talking

about,

...

or not worth listening because not using the best word, or designed to slow down any thinking process

by

...

drawing out a *detail*, or what ??

If such is your concern, explain *yourself* what

*you*

...

think is a portal, or better, explain what should

be

...

www.wikipedia.org page to your opinion.

Anthere, I took the question to be sincere, though not especially diplomatic. :-) I also don't know what a portal is--I *think* I do, but I'm usually only partly right when I *think* I know something, and so I'm usually mostly wrong.

Yahoo is a portal, right? ... Or no?

kq

Okay. Most of the time a portal is defined as a site which is a convergence of various entities. A Web site being useful like starting point, a door open to a world of information.

Now, the goal of a portal is not only to lead people to other places (by links leading to other sites), but also to keep them a little bit (by providing little services, such as emails accounts, news, weather...). Meanwhile, people look at your ads and you make money (along other ways).

Yahoo is not only a portal, but as far as I know, it is considered the first portal ever. I remember going on it while it was not called Yahoo yet (I don't remember the name it had then, but it was another name).

But Yahoo is a very horizontal portal, not representative of what wikipedia could be of course. It is certainly following this open directory definition. It is providing lots of info on very various subjects.

Other types of portals follow a different design, there are vertical, meaning they offer info on very precise subjects. Some are shared by only a limited number of people sharing the same interest, and offer them internal ressources (such commercial info, customer info, specialized info they can pick up). They can also be meeting points where there is mixing of data between several parties. In the farming world, where farmers are physically very isolated from the other parties (cooperatives, counsellors, seed firms, heavy equipement...), these types of portals, platfarms for data management, are getting rather numerous.

Here's a totally bare portal I often go to http://www.agriculture.com/worldwide/index.html - Just provides a dozen of digested hit news from Reuters. - links to the different partners sites (all ag sites from all over the world) - and somewhere hidden behind, some more stuff to try to keep people up a little bit longuer

The type of page proposed on http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_do_with_www.wikipedia.org does follow exactly the definition of a portal ahma * quick information (characteristics of the project, number of "partners", when each started, maybe the number of articles we are currently having in the base...) * links to all the "partners" * some information behind (foundation, list of participants, mailing list)

See? it is just a portal! Just a gateway to the real stuff, on the xx.wikipedia.org

I don't say it is necessary wrong. I use portals quite a lot myself, but I use them 'cause it makes sense to go each time to the portal, because I use *several* of the links available on the portal.

In Wikipedia case, most people will only go to one of the links most of time. So a portal is not very interesting maybe? Except if on the second connexion, the user is directly brought to the right xx.wikipedia.org. Otherwise, it is a lack of time.

But if on the second connexion the user is brought to the xx.wikipedia.org, he will rarely go to the www.wikipedia.org and maybe is it loosing something. No ?

Besides, you will notice I used the word "partners". A portal tends to atomize things rather than to interlink them.

Does what I say make more sense now ? Do you think I am wrong in my feeling or not ?

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