Kascade: a new Open directory way of access to Internet information

Information retrieval is continuously being challenged by the fast increasing size of document collections. The Internet is a special example of this. Search engines have difficulties in keeping up with the growth. Moreover, for good information retrieval users should possess far better search skills than is common. The resulting problems with information retrieval for Internet documents demand the development of alternatives. Open directory initiatives are such an alternative. They are based on volunteers and organisations that structure parts of the Internet. In this article Kascade, a new Open directory way of access to Internet information, is presented. With Kascade, directories are distributed over the web in the form of DII files that are based on a new file format designed for this purpose. The DII file format enables the use of programming languages-like abstraction in the creation of these directories. Moreover, queries can be defined that generate new local hierarchies in real-time based on the contents of the same or other DII files. The resulting distributed directories may be browsed by a small application that can also be used for communication among users.