Digital Universe Launches Experts Recruitment Program

New Global Program Attracting Top Experts in Science, Arts, Humanities and Culture to Build Portals

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – May 15, 2006 – The Digital Universe Foundation today announced the official launch of its Steward Recruitment Program, which is already attracting leading experts from around the globe to oversee content development and editing for their areas of knowledge in the Web-based Digital Universe (http://DigitalUniverse.net).

The Digital Universe is a new network of portals designed to provide high-quality information and services to the public. Stewards (i.e. subject matter experts) will be responsible for vetting content associated with their disciplines provided by a diverse group of contributors, including researchers, scholars, educators and the public. Unlike other sites that allow anonymous contributors to alter content at will, the publicly-viewable Digital Universe content will only be changed after review by designated stewards.

"We are inviting subject matter experts to join an historic project, to begin work on what can become the most authoritative source of human knowledge," said Dr. Robert Corell, chairman of the non-profit Digital Universe Foundation and chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

Given the vast scope of the Digital Universe, content experts in fields ranging from biology to astronomy, from history to literature, from music to medicine are encouraged to participate. Content developed by these experts will be available for no cost and the site will be 100% free of advertising revenue and influence from advertisers.

According to Dr. Bernard Haisch, president of the Foundation: "This was inspired by the Encyclopedia Galactica envisioned by Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan and we now have the tools to begin such an ambitious project."

One of the leaders of the project is Dr. Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia.

Incoming experts will join over 170 colleagues at more than 90 universities, government agencies, and non-profit institutions already working together on the Encyclopedia of Earth, one of the first Digital Universe initiatives led by Prof. Cutler Cleveland of Boston University..

To learn more about the Digital Universe Steward Recruitment Program or to join the program, visit www.DigitalUniverse.net/XXX.

About Digital Universe

The mission of the Digital Universe (www.DigitalUniverse.net) is to create the most reliable, comprehensive and accessible online information resource on the Internet. The Digital Universe is a participatory global project, involving researchers, scholars, educators and the public. The Digital Universe is 100% free of advertising revenue and influence from advertisers. Digital Universe activities are coordinated by the non-profit Digital Universe Foundation. For more information, visit www.digitaluniverse.net.

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Digital Universe and Digital Universe Foundation are trademarks of ManyOne. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

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Gary Byrd
FortyThree, Inc.
DigitalUniverse@fortythreepr.com
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