Why Does the Open Directory Work?

I posted this as an Ask Slashdot today, but in case it doesn’t get picked here it is: The Open Directory project is an outstanding success, driven by thousands of volunteer editors and used by 120 affiliate sites including Hotbot, AltaVista and Infospace. Netscape/AOL own the copyright on the collection and they choose to license the content under a GPL-like license. So what motivates the editors of the directory? They freely contribute their time and energy to contribute to a collection owned by a commercial entity that could choose to change the license at any time and turn it into a commercial product. Any thoughts?

Permalink: http://blog.iandavis.com/2000/02/why-does-the-open-directory-work/

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