Cyburbia Resource Directory updates

As of May 2008, the Cyburbia Resource Directory will no longer be updated.

What is today known as Cyburbia got its start in October 1996, as a page on the SUNY/University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning Web site that included a list of links to the few architecture and planning-related Web sites then in existence. Through time, the list grew into a directory, which eventually became the foundation for a section of the UB SA&P site called PAIRC: The Planning and Architecture Internet Resource Center. In 1997, PAIRC was redubbed Cyburbia, and spun off from the UB SA&P site.

In the mid-1990s, human-edited directories and guides such as the Cyburbia Resource Directory, Yahoo! Directory, and the World Wide Web Virtual Library were the primary means of finding relevant Web sites for a certain subject. However, with the exponential growth of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it became a Sisyphean task to maintain a comprehensive, or even selective human-edited directory of online planning resources. As search engines became more advanced, Web directories were increasingly rendered obsolete.

Since 2000, visitor traffic gradually shifted away from the Resource Directory to the more interactive social and networking sections of the site, such as the Cyburbia Forums and Cyburbia Gallery. With the very limited resources available to us, it is no longer practical to maintain the Directory.

Also consider that other planning-related Web sites charge fees to be listed in similar directories. Cyburbia gets nothing. To be honest, there's also no incentive for us to maintain the directory anymore.

No new submissions to the Resource Directory will be accepted. Many sections of the Resource Directory, such as lists of academic planning programs and professional organizations, will eventually be transferred to PlanningWiki. Cyburbia will continue to recognize exemplary and interesting non-commercial planning related Web sites in the Site of the Day section. Commercial planning-related sites can get great exposure while helping to support Cyburbia by sponsoring a section or subforum on the site.

The Directory will remain online for as long as technically possible.