Building Norway’s national encyclopaedia

Kunnskapsforlaget’s web expert Petter Egesund explains how he has worked with the Norwegian software provider and consultancy firm pretty much since he joined Kunnskapsforlaget in 2001.

“Redpill Linpro is both skilled and attentive,” he says. “Our cooperation has worked extremely well, and what they have delivered has exceeded our expectations. They have specialist expertise and a huge amount of knowledge, as well as being a pleasure to deal with.”

A recruitment magnet

Petter explains that Open Source software gives the company better control over its own systems. This also brings savings in terms of licensing costs, but this isn’t the most important factor when choosing a system.

“The most important thing is that access to the source code also gives us a good understanding of how the tools we use actually work. The fact that the source code is accessible gives us the flexibility to make adaptations to meet our functionality requirements.

“Open Source software brings many advantages for developers, such as greater flexibility and readily accessible components. Many dedicated people work with Open Source code. They belong to large forums and are interested in imparting and sharing their knowledge. Not only do they share their expertise, they also get access to functionality developed by others.

“Open Source code makes it easier to attract excellent employees – people who are genuinely interested in what they are doing.”

The best of both worlds

Petter is extremely enthusiastic about Open Source software, without being a fanatic. He wants to be able to choose from the best of both worlds. In today’s technological world, it’s all about interaction and being able to choose the best solution to meet one’s needs.

“I’m also happy with proprietary solutions. Taking a pragmatic approach is what gives us the best solutions at any given time.”

One occasion on which Redpill Linpro has provided support was when developing a new version of the Store Norske Leksikon (SNL). SNL is Norway’s – and the world’s – only online multivolume encyclopaedia, as well as being the country’s oldest, largest and longest-established encyclopaedia.

“Once upon a time, every respectable home would have such an encyclopaedia, often prominently displayed. Today, it’s just as easy to look entries up on a computer. And SNL is available online.”

The fourth edition of SNL was produced between January 2005 and April 2007, and comprises 12,000 pages and 150,000 articles. Redpill Linpro worked on a new publication format: Store Norske Leksikon 2.0, which is open for user contributions. Authorised users can create and edit their own additional articles or satellite encyclopaedias. To date, SNL has almost 50,000 authorised users.

Dictionaries galore

Redpill Linpro also helped to develop the subscription-based dictionary portfolio Ordnett Pluss, as well as maintaining other systems. Ordnett Pluss consists of various dictionaries and mini-grammars. It has been online for three years, and has 170,000 unique users.

“Ordnett has grown at an incredible rate, and now has around 3.8 million page views every month. It’s been a run-away success, not least thanks to Redpill Linpro.”

Petter goes on to explain that Redpill Linpro helped with development and coding in Perl – the programming language which forms the basis for the online service.

Transferring expertise

“We had to go into considerable depth, but we worked closely together with Redpill Linpro all the time. Throughout the development process and our collaboration, we got the specialist expertise needed in order to develop and commission the system.”

Petter appreciates having a clear overview and good control, and describes the development of the Ordnett Pluss project – which includes a tailor-made authentication and payment solution – as having been painless.

“I’m also delighted with the security of the system.

“We now have an impressive payment solution. We’re currently working on version 2.0, which includes a number of new business solutions. Of course, Redpill Linpro is involved.”

Finding a good solution for making the paper version of SNL or Ordnett accessible electronically wasn’t easy. Indexing also presented a number of challenges.

“We had to come up with a new user interface which offered a good level of searchability. The solution we chose was Perl. The next version will be even better.

“As well as developing these two Perl-based solutions, Kunnskapsforlaget uses other Open Source software, such as the database solution MySQL, Berkeley and Java.”

A wealth of source code

Kunnskapsforlaget has also created a downloadable version of Ordnett for school use, which is automatically updated via the internet. This has been produced for Windows, but versions for Mac and Linux are also being planned.

Elements of all the projects are freely available online through SourceForge. Petter wants to take this further, but more work is required.

“This will provide us with a better foundation for continuing to develop our source code,” he says.