During the next three years the participating scholars plan to implement innovative concepts in the field of online encyclopedias. These include multimedia, interactivity, collaboration, versioning, and the integration of additional functionalities for libraries as well as web-based editorial workflows. They aim to develop functionalities for collaborative editing and updating of electronic publications to facilitate interactive work and the publication environment. These would also be accessible for various forms of user participation as well as various methods of quality assurance. The focus of the project is to ensure the availability of online encyclopedias with open access criteria and to promote electronic publishing of scientific research. The Bavarian State Library is planning long-term archiving for online encyclopedias that are implemented within this project and on the basis of the project.

The online encyclopedia of the First World War, "1914–1918 online," and a CeMoG Encyclopedia of German-Greek relations are intended to be the first applications of the Open Encyclopedia System. Plans are underway for other academic encyclopedias to follow. With this project, Freie Universität Berlin is making its presence visible in the fields of digital history and digital humanities and is contributing to current developments in the open source software of electronic publication systems.