World/Español
(Click here to read the Spanish version of this article)
World/Español is a dynamic branch that knows it has a lot to offer to its end-users and to all the ODP community. In this last year it had a steady growth of 11% which has taken it to over 178,000 listed sites. 
Quality and Teamwork
345 editors of World/Español form the active part of a great community, doing their utmost towards a common objective, with over 60% of us contributing, at least, on a monthly basis. We all help to elaborate most of what is offered to our Spanish speaking public.
The Comité de bienvenida (Welcome Committee) and the Boletín Mensual (Monthly Newsletter) are examples of this type of work.
Welcome Committee, Guiding Editors and Mentors' Assignment
We have all been beginners and have felt overwhelmed by the amount of information we have had to deal with, once the editors' application has been accepted. One begins to feel a mixed sensation of astonishment and anxiety, and begins to have strange ideas, sort of like "What the hell am I doing here"!
With the idea of minimizing the impact on the new editor, since early 2005 we started up the Comité de bienvenida (Welcome Committee). Its tasks are: receive the new editors, assist them in their integration to the community, register their progress, and help out on the improvement of their editing work.
To make this reception even more personal, as from some time ago, each new editor has, since the very beginning a designated Guiding Editor who becomes the first reference point with the directory and is responsible of following up the first edits. After this period of assimilation, of about one month, editors who demonstrated commitment and interest can request a Mentor. All this is possible thanks to the participation of voluntary Guiding Editors and Mentors, who are assigned according to preferences and/or shifts.
Boletín Mensual (Monthly Newsletter), an achievement sustained in time
As we know that not all the editors regularly enter the forums, we try to keep them informed by means of our Monthly Newsletter. This e-mail which is issued at the beginning of the month since October 2003 - therefore, it has 32 issues - is written by the editors and contains an update on projects, ideas, changes, promotions, statistics and even jokes and a lot of humor. To access all the issues click Boletines.
Major Projects
The World/Español branch is committed to the continuous improvement of its architecture and navigation. That's the reason why proposals of different magnitude are constantly presented, analyzed and approved. Among the outstanding finished or advanced projects we mention the following:
a. Change of Structure from Países (Countries) to Regional: This was probably the most relevant of our recent projects. The first level of geographical subcategorization (Regional) was missing in World/Español as this level had been called Países instead of Regional. The result was that at World/Español/Países we had three areas:
- An alphabar for all countries
- The countries directly listed "above the line"
- List of the continents "below the line"
In the recent reorg we have replaced World/Español/Países by World/Español/Regional. Now the Directory has a homogeneous structure and the users don't have to ask themselves why we had such a strange structure, with continents placed below countries. 
To illustrate the change and to notice the improvement, there's nothing better than see a file of the previous structure and compare with the present structure.
b. Design of the Plantillas (Regional Templates) in Spanish: The importance of this project is based on the benefits both to users and editors. 
The Regional category contains 67% of the total of listed sites in World/Español. Given its breadth, it is very important to have a well defined structure and to foresee a possible subcategorization, which can solve the needs of future growth in a comprehensive and homogeneous way, regardless of the geographical area of application.
We get this result through the Plantillas (Regional Templates) in Spanish, based on the Regional Templates in English, which allow us to put up a simple and flexible structure, adaptable to each area, but with identical features and appearances.
We also try to find names for the categories which can be fully understood and accepted in all parts of the Spanish speaking world. In the selection of the best names for categories it's important to point out the existence of the Términos recomendados (Preferred terms), whose purpose is to help editors choose the most adequate words, when a subcategory is created.
Work from the last months has led to significant progress in the Templates of Economía y negocios (Business and Economics) and of Educación (Education).
c. Translation of the Official Documentation, Glossary, and Interface: In progress, and a high level of activity. Its objective is to translate as many documents as possible from English to Spanish taking into account the priorities of the different pieces of information. Among the documents already processed are significant parts of the Editing Guidelines (including Adults, Kids and Teens and Regional), Resources for editors, About ODP and Help. We have already translated about 35 new documents.
We are also working on the translation of the Glossary and Interface.
For more information on this project the links are:
Final Message
We wished to share with the ODP community the objectives, activities, results and expectations of World/Español and its editing team.
As we think that the diversity of languages is one of the biggest values of our Directory, and not a barrier, we have approached you with the aim that you get to know us better. We hope to have achieved our goal.
- members of the W/E Team: :irmaar, miriamferrari, guidix, vpamies, esteban, and nooor
During the last few months, World/Chinese Simplified editors celebrated that we have reached 20,000 sites, and we believe it's growing and growing. The editors in Shopping are working hard to take care of altlangs, @links and relcats after the long-discussed reorganizations, so now the category is very close to the English category. Thanks to morningsun and amoyer. Meanwhile, a number of industrious and creative editors including damsel, sunwell, liuyuehong, xiaoma, sinu, and tangyp are helping to clean up greens, develop and build many new categories. The next few months should continue to be busy for the editors, as more and more newbies join and begin to bring new fresh ideas to
Congratulations to griffinn, the first World/Chinese Traditional CatMod! And thanks to all the Chinese Traditional editors and gti96 
for contributing to a category which has easily exceeded 10,000 sites! The editors are now looking forward to crossing the 20,000 mark this year. The biggest improvements in the Regional category has been the development of the Regional/Asia/Taiwan and Regional/Asia/Hong_Kong category. Editors have worked hard to create sub-categories, descriptions, and category charters, resulting in much improved and appreciated categories led by taipaz and griffinn. (florawilberforce)
World/Sicilianu
Activities in 
In October 2005 we had 1230 sites, now there are more than 2300. This is an enormous growth! The major part benefited the