Resource:Planetmath

Planetmath is a free, online, open-content, collaborative mathematics resource. While primarily an encyclopedia, it also contains books, expositions, papers and forums.

Start Planetmath
Planetmath is online, or Internet-based. It can be accessed using a Web browser and an Internet connection:

http://planetmath.org

Planetmath dumps can also be downloaded at:

http://aux.planetmath.org/snapshots/

Search Planetmath
Planetmath offers a search box in the upper right corner. One can also search Planetmath by adding "site:planetmath.org" to a search query on a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Windows Live.

Article names and reaching a given article
Articles in Planetmath are named using CamelCase conventions. However, these conventions are not rigidly followed for all article names.

In the CamelCase convention, a term consisting of multiple words is shrunk to a single word, with the first letter of each original word capitalized. Thus, "prime number" becomes "PrimeNumber", and the planetmath URL for it is:

http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/PrimeNumber.html

More about Planetmath for users
View the Planetmath FAQ and further documentation.

Key features described here:


 * Planetmath is similar to Mathworld, except for its greater focus on collaboration, and its open-content license.
 * Planetmath is a lot like Wikipedia, except in the following respects: First, its content management system is specifically geared for good display of mathematical expressions (it uses TeX/LaTeX-based input). Second, every object is "owned" by a person, rather than being collectively owned, and the system for revising/correcting an object is different from that on wikis.

Free access
All content on Planetmath can be accessed for free (i.e., there are no access or subscription fees).

Copyright and reuse
Planetmath content is released under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This is the same as the license used by Wikipedia, and allows people to reuse the content on Planetmath so long as they release their own modifications under the same license.

View the license page for more details.

Software tools
Planetmath runs on Noosphere, a content management system suitable for collaborative mathematics-rich projects.

View Planetmath's Noosphere description for more details.

Financial model
Planetmath is run by a US-based non-profit organization, Planetmath.org, Ltd (registered under Section 501(c)(3)) incorporated in Alexandria, Virginia.

The financial model rests primarily on donations:


 * 1) http://aux.planetmath.org/doc/donate.html The donate page

http://aux.planetmath.org/doc/donate.html

Collaborative content creation
Content is created collaboratively on Planetmath: anybody can start an article. However, there is an important difference between Planetmath and content creation mechanisms like Wikipedia. On Planetmath, every article is owned by somebody (the person who creates it) and this person acts as a gatekeeper for the article, moderating suggestions by other people for improving the article. Planetmath also allows people to use a wiki model in content creation.

Compensation model
Planetmath does not provide monetary compensation for writing articles. However, the person starting an article is given ownership over it and his/her username is displayed at the bottom of the article.