How should the open Internet search work?
The short answer: Not in isolation. Open Search is based on the idea that many people and organisations work together, but decentrally, on an open infrastructure for Internet search.
The short answer: Not in isolation. Open Search is based on the idea that many people and organisations work together, but decentrally, on an open infrastructure for Internet search.
For OSF, data centres make their computing capacities freely available so we can index the web together. In this way, no new server farms are necessary, which means lower costs and less impact on the environment. Instead, we use the power of many collaborators to get the job done in a financially viable and relatively short-term framework.
The first steps have already been taken. Together with experts from European computer centres and research institutions, we are promoting decentralised indexing experiments and the development of advanced concepts. In addition, we’ve already gained the first supporters of the Open Search movement from the private and public sectors. If you and your organisation would like to get involved, please write to us at .
Co-operative, distributed computing and hosting
Through shared, decentralized computing and hosting, the Open Search movement enables the establishment and operation of the search infrastructure. The computing, storage and network capacities of many data centres in Europe are used jointly to create and keep up to date an open web index.
This open web index then forms the basis for many Internet tasks in and for Europe: Open Internet searches, comparison and sales portals, scientific research and also for services that we do not even know today.
It is important to accept that the creation and maintenance of this search infrastructure will only be possible together and without commercial interests.
Open Search principles and algorithms
Similar to the open source operating system Linux, the development and expansion of the Internet search infrastructure will be based on open source principles and algorithms. Different communities will work on the development and further development of the system, for example in the areas of crawling, indexing, web search and IT security.
However, through the open source principles, we ensure that the functioning of the overall system is comprehensible and transparent.
Public, transparent and unbiased moderation
Each search index must be designed and maintained thematically, linguistically, structurally and in terms of content. This task has a very special significance in Internet searches: even before a search algorithm can start its work, the database and search index decide whether and how information, a website or a topic can be found on the Internet at all.
Therefore, this highly responsible task of maintenance must not be left to chance, not to an algorithm or possibly one-sided commercial or political interests. Rather, the maintenance must be organised as objectively as possible and legally harmless as possible on the basis of transparent rules, with public auditing processes and with the participation of experts.
We call this very important part of the construction and maintenance of the search infrastructure “public moderation”. In addition to various specialist groups, libraries and lawyers, we will also involve the public in order to ensure “democratic” verifiability and the integrity of content and structures.
Working groups
Open Search concerns far more than just technical aspects. That is why we have set up specialist groups for different areas. If you would like to participate or have any questions, please contact us.