The Internet Resources Database
Information about this project.

Content:

Goal

Concept

Software

Organization

Content

Rules

Spirit

More information

THE GOAL:

The Internet is extremely vast and changes very fast.  The goal of the Internet Resources Database is to give you detailed and up to date information on where to find the information you need, before you dial up and do costly and frustrating internet site hopping.

THE CONCEPT:

Become more efficient at searching for needed information offline and update your database with the information you need online.
Minimize overall bandwidth use and expensive on-line "connect" time. Benefit from - and participate in - an information system where you will profit from the inputs of fellow users, which serves to constantly increase the value of your Internet Resources Database.

An offline Internet search tool does not mean getting your hard disk jammed with Megabytes of useless information.  The Internet Resources Database structures the information into data files by subject, by resource type and into country or region specific data files.
Every user can selectively download those files which are of interest to him or her and update the database on his PC with the most current information.

THE SOFTWARE:

The IRD software is an easy to use and easy to setup Windows application, that gives you powerful search and notebook functions.
A comfortable appending feature lets you build a database according to your interests and allows easy updating with new files without losing any of the information you have stored in the Notebook or any of the notes you have made to entries in your database.

THE ORGANIZATION:

The IRD project is built on its users. We encourage all of you to submit new site information and to report changes to be included in the database files for the advantage of all.

Imagine what a powerful information tool you will have at your hand; one that allows you to benefit from the inputs of all the other users with similar interests than you and vice versa.

We further count on a crew of voluntary moderators screening and organizing  the information related to "their" database file, much like the responsibilities of a newsgroup moderator.

To keep all IRD users up to date of changes and new file releases, we provide an infrastructure of World Wide Web site, FTP site, InfoServer and Mailing List information.

We encourage everybody to distribute the software as well as the database files on disk, by uploading IRD to their local server or BBS, etc.

THE CONTENT:

The Internet holds a lot of information. By dividing it into hundreds of different subject files this information becomes very manageable for IRD users.

IRD users, the moderators and the IRD coordination team will see that the following principles shall be applied to all our information:

1) We want to give up to date information. This means we focus on sites that are stable and likely to stay for a while.  We do not want to compete with sites portraying events of only a temporary nature. We will update all IRD files on a regular basis.

2) We value content more than numbers. Our focus is to provide high quality, subject oriented information. We do not aim to have the highest number of resources listed, but the quality and focused nature of our information is unparalleled.

Furthermore, we do not compete with the popular web search engines. They provide information in a different way.

3) There are also unmoderated files for private homepages, business pages and misc. topics. They are worth a look...often a hidden gemstone could be found among these web sites.  Take a surf and enjoy!

THE RULES:

1) We set no limit on the number of people who want to open up and moderate a subject area or topic file within our database, as long as they are meeting our set of rules and it is not a commercial file.
We do not censor or make decisions on content based on religious or ethical questions, leaving it up to our users to download or not.

2) Everybody can distribute the IRD files and the software for non profit purposes and if the content remains unchanged.
We appreciate and support regional and national distribution.

3) All database files are copyrighted Freeware, but the IRD Reader & Notebook software is Shareware.  After the initial evaluation period, you must register the IRD - Reader & Notebook program if you like it and decide to continue using it.  The registration fee makes up for the expenses to improve the software and to maintain the organization.

THE SPIRIT:

1) Although this project is rather young, we have come a long way since its inception.  As many, many people from around the world are discovering, the first version of IRD is a very valuable tool for all users.  But we are strongly committed to constantly improving the software, so we ask for any and all comments and suggestions from all users.

2) As with most recently released software programs, some minor bugs or missing features that users desire may be discovered over the next few months.  We ask for your cooperation and support in letting us know of any problems and desired futures so that we can rapidly improve the Internet Resources Database.

3) IRD is a team effort. Please spread the word about this Internet information system. The quality of content increases with the number of users.

Have fun surfing the Internet and using IRD as your Internet Guide and Notebook and thank you for your interest.

Martin Bohnet

Publisher

mbohnet@mbmarktcons.com

MORE INFORMATION:

You can request the following documents from our email InfoServer:

IRD-FAQ@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

IRD-Moderator-Info@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

 (send email to this addresses to receive the documents)

For downloading the most current datafiles visit the IRD Web site:

http://www.mbmarktcons.com/irdhome.html

or  FTP to:

ftp://ftp.mbmarktcons.com/pub/mbmarkt/ird