SLOVAK leaders and important public figures will gather under one virtual roof this summer thanks to an online encyclopaedia project called Leaders.sk. A joint venture between Slovak publishing houses Petit Press and Trend Holding, Leaders.sk will give the public an up close and personal look at the Slovaks who shape our everyday lives.
Essentially, Leaders.sk is an Internet-based, searchable database containing detailed information about Slovak public figures, from politicians to business leaders to sports figures.
Lukáš Fila is one of the project managers for Leaders.sk. An employee of Petit Press, Fila believes that Leaders.sk will be a vital tool in helping investors, business people, diplomats, members of the media and regular citizens understand current events in Slovakia.
"The project was motivated by an absence of information in Slovakia; we really wish to clarify the role of public life in our homeland," he said. The searchable encyclopaedia, set to go live this summer, will be available in Slovak and English.
"Already, more than 100 public figures have agreed to send in detailed information describing their careers, achieved academic education, published work or even professional success stories," Fila told The Slovak Spectator. This information will be publicly available on the Leaders.sk website that will launch in summer: www.leaders.sk.
Those behind Leaders.sk say the project is not to build a showcase for the Slovak elite but rather to collect information from the publicly available sources into a searchable database. The Leaders.sk website should create a mosaic that would be close to the real picture of the Slovak reality.
In addition to information supplied by individual sources, data will be secured from articles published in associated newspapers such as The Slovak Spectator, SME and Trend. Entries for influential public figures will include original analysis of their lives and work.
According to Fila, the first users of www.leaders.sk will likely be from business and media sectors. "We expect that the information of Slovak public figures will be particularly interesting to foreign businesses, journalists or public figures," said Fila.
There will be a special service for foreign clients who can order different research and compilations.
