index.html

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title: Home
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 		<h1>What it's about.</h1>
<p>
<strong>OpenGuides&trade;</strong> is a network of free, community-maintained
<a href="http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki">wiki</a> guidebooks to places
around the world. Anyone is free to contribute, whether it's by writing new
articles or editing the articles that we already have. Read more at the <a 
href="information">project</a> page.

</p>
<h2>Software that works.</h2>
<p>
We built our own software engine to do exactly what we wanted to do. You can
read all about it in the <a href="software">software</a> section of this
site. And it's free and open, so you can use and extend it yourself.
</p>
<p>
Here comes the science bit: our technical policy is to provide the maximum 
possible amount of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata">metadata</a> 
about the stuff in our guides in <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/"><acronym 
title="Resource Description Framework">RDF</acronym></a>, in order to allow it
to be easily integrated into other systems as part of the <a 
href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/">Semantic Web</a>. What that means to you
and me is that the information our users provide can be shared and re-used
automatically between other sites and technologies.

</p>
<h2>Join us.</h2>
<p>
The OpenGuides network needs you. We're always looking for more places to
add to our collection of guides. If your town, city, district or even region
isn't represented here, you can <a href="software">set up a guide</a> 
yourself and join us.
</p>
<p>
Contact us by <a href="mailto:openguides-dev@lists.openguides.org">mailing the
developers</a>, joining the <a href="lists">mailing list</a> or
talking to us on <acronym title="Internet Relay Chat"><a href="irc">IRC</a></acronym>.

</p>