Digital Universe opens for public tryout

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

A couple of years ago, when dot-com millionaire Joe Firmage first floated his idea for an expert-based “Encyclopedia Galactica” that would knit together all realms of knowledge in a clickable online world, you might have wondered whether the whole idea was just a science-fiction gimmick.

Then Wikipedia, the community-based online encyclopedia, blossomed on the Web. Google Earth, the search engine company's map-based interface for global imagery, made a huge splash. Looking back, Firmage’s idea might have just been ahead of its time.

Firmage and his collaborators say the Encyclopedia Galactica vision is ready for a pilot tryout, if not for prime time. On Tuesday, they officially took the wraps off their software project, now known as the Digital Universe. Will it turn out to be a nonprofit “PBS of the Web,” as Firmage and his collaborators hope? Stay tuned: Even Firmage admits it might take years for the idea to catch on.

“I and all those that we work with would be absolutely delighted to see that somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the public regularly uses the Digital Universe within the next 10 years,” Firmage told MSNBC.com. “I would characterize that as very healthy success.”

Firmage’s success in the computer industry goes back more than a decade, to his role in founding such companies as Serius Corp. and USWeb. That's how he earned his millions — but in the late 1990s, he made the transition to less commercial pursuits, ranging from UFO studies to the Cosmos 1 solar-sail mission.

It all started with ‘Cosmos’
Firmage, 35, said the inspiration for the Digital Universe goes back to his childhood, when his father sat him down to watch astronomer Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" TV series. During one of the episodes, Sagan speculated on the future development of an Encyclopedia Galactica in which all of Earth's history would be written.

"I was totally hooked," Firmage recalled, "and it transformed my life."

In the wake of his dot-com success, Firmage went into partnership with Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, to create Cosmos Studios — and he also started working on turning the Encyclopedia Galactica into a reality.

Over the past few years, Firmage has been refining the idea with the aid of experts such as Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger and astrophysicist Bernard Haisch. A constellation of universities, corporations and nonprofit groups — including NASA, ESRI and the National Council for Science and the Environment — agreed to participate.

Firmage said $10.5 million has been spent developing the project since 2002.

Encyclopedic precedents
In addition to Encyclopedia Galactica, the Digital Universe draws upon Sanger's concept of a "Nupedia" that would create thoroughly vetted articles on a wide variety of subjects and put them online — like Wikipedia, but with academic peer review. The original Nupedia concept fizzled under the weight of its own red tape, but it helped shape the development of the Digital Universe.

Haisch said the recent controversy over a faked Wikipedia entry reinforced the need for expert oversight. "We're going to try to avoid those pitfalls by recognizing expertise and by requiring that contributors use their real names," he said.

The Digital Universe would still have a place for content submitted by the public, "which we welcome, but which will be labeled unvetted public material, separated from the contributions of experts," Haisch said.

"So this curious timing about Wikipedia has benefited us in a surprising way," he said.

Even Wikipedia is evolving in the wake of the recent flap, and its record holds up pretty well in comparison with traditional information sources such as Encyclopedia Brittanica. Wikipedia's lead founder, Jimmy Wales, told MSNBC.com that he didn't know much about the Digital Universe's development, but said it would be a mistake to cast the quest for accuracy in terms of insiders vs. outsiders.

"That's a big error to assume that there’s any tension between the two, that it’s experts vs. community," Wales insisted. "There are experts in the community."

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