Project Gutenberg News

Editors Note: Marie’s essay is available in English

[Table]

• Sommaire
• Un pari depuis 1971
• La méthode adoptée
• La correction partagée
• Des collections multilingues
• Domaine public versus copyright
• Du passé vers l’avenir
• Chronologie
• Statistiques
• Liens

SOMMAIRE

• Août 1997: 1.000 livres
• Avril 2002: 5.000 livres
• Octobre 2003: 10.000 livres
• Janvier 2005: 15.000 livres
• Décembre 2006: 20.000 livres
• Avril 2008: 25.000 livres

En juillet 1971, Michael Hart crée le Projet Gutenberg pour diffuser gratuitement sous forme électronique les oeuvres littéraires du domaine public. Un projet longtemps considéré par ses détracteurs comme impossible à grande échelle. Site pionnier à tous égards, le Projet Gutenberg est à la fois le premier site d’information sur un réseau encore embryonnaire et la première bibliothèque numérique. Les livres sont numérisés en mode texte (TXT) en utilisant le code ASCII (American standard code for information interchange). Lorsque l’utilisation du web se généralise, au milieu des années 1990, le projet trouve un second souffle et un rayonnement international. Les collections atteignent 1.000 livres en août 1997, 2.000 livres en mai 1999, 3.000 livres en décembre 2000, 4.000 livres en octobre 2001, 5.000 livres en avril 2002, 10.000 livres en octobre 2003, 15.000 livres en janvier 2005, 20.000 livres en décembre 2006 et 25.000 livres en avril 2008, dans 55 langues, avec 340 nouveaux livres par mois, 340 sites miroirs dans de nombreux pays, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de téléchargements par jour et des milliers de volontaires de par le monde. En octobre 2001, la principale source des livres devient Distributed Proofreaders, mis sur pied par Charles Franks pour gérer la correction partagée entre volontaires. D’abord essentiellement anglophones, le Projet Gutenberg s’internationalise et les collections deviennent multilingues. Le Projet Gutenberg Europe est lancé en janvier 2004 par le Projet Rastko, basé à Belgrade, en Serbie. Suivent le Project Gutenberg Canada et bien d’autres.

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ECTACO are probably better know for their electronic hand held translators, but now they gone and released their very own reader; the jetBook eBook Reader.

The jetBook does not use an E-Ink screen, however, this does give it an advantage over all the other eBook readers that are currently out there; a crisp and very white screen! One of the issues people have with the current E-Ink (and VixPlex) standard is that the page contrast is not high enough - usually with E-Ink screens you have a light gray background displaying dark gray text, making low light reading a challenge.

Well, if you think this will be an issue then perhaps you would be better suited to a jetBook. These use a reflective monochrome LCD screen so that the background is nice and white, allowing the text to be read much easier.

[The jetBook has] an easy to scan high-resolution 5-inch display and a viewing angle close to 180°, it is fully customizable. Even readers who have difficulty seeing print books will benefit from its adjustable text size and font face. And weighing in at only 7.5 ounces, this handy device fits perfectly into the palm of your hand.

They go on to say that this “revolutionary display reflects light without the need for backlighting”, which according to reviews gives a similar reading experience to an E-Ink screen.

For me however, the most impressive feature of the jetBook is its ability to search and cross-reference the text using bookmarks making it a great choice for dictionaries - I’m not sure if this means you can do a word lookup from within a book. I’ll try to find out and post an update.

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In Australia it is now 1st August 2008 and Project Gutenberg Australia is celebrating its seventh birthday!

In August 2001 Project Gutenberg Australia posted their first book online, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell - they now have over 1600 titles available for download. Project Gutenbereg (U.S.) only posted their 1,600th title in June 1998 - that’s 20 years longer that it has taken PGA!

“Aussies are perhaps the greatest volunteering nation on a percentage basis“, this is certainly no understatement from Project Gutenberg Founder, Michael Hart. We send our congratulations to all the Aussie’s who have volunteered over the years. I’m sure the next seven are going to be even more impressive.

Traducido por Anna Alvarez y Marie Lebert

ÍNDICE

Introducción
Cronología
1968: ASCII
1971: Proyecto Gutenberg
1974: Internet
1990: Web
1991: Unicode
1993: Online Books Page
1993: PDF
1994: Consorcio W3C
1995: Amazon.com
1996: Internet Archive
1996: Palm Pilot
1997: Open eBook
1999: Bibliotecarios digitales
1999: Web multilingüe
2000: Mobipocket
2000: Public Library of Science
2000: Distributed Proofreaders
2000: Biblia de Gutenberg
2001: Wikipedia
2003: MIT OpenCourseWare
2004: Proyecto Gutenberg Europa
2005: Google Print / Book Search
2005: Open Content Alliance
2006: Microsoft Live Search Books
2006: WorldCat
2007: Citizendium
2007: Encyclopedia of Life

INTRODUCCIÓN

Somos muchos los que soñamos con una biblioteca digital universal de libre acceso - es decir accesible desde cualquier navegadora y en cualquier momento. Gracias al Proyecto Gutenberg, al Internet Archive y a otros proyectos, el sueño empieza a hacerse realidad, al menos para los libros del dominio público.

Este proceso empezó hace tiempo gracias a los esfuerzos de algunos precursores. El “libro para todos” nació con el Proyecto Gutenberg, creado por Michael Hart en julio de 1971. El objetivo era utilizar las “nuevas tecnologías” para difundir gratuitamente bajo forma electrónica las obras literarias que pertenecían al dominio público.

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Great news for all us UK based eBook lovers. Sony are finally releasing their Reader Digital Book (PRS-505) to the UK market!

Sony have partnered with the UK book store Waterstones, who will start selling the Reader from 3rd September 2008 for £199 - available for Pre-Order (see below). This costs a little more than the U.S. version, which sells for $299 (approx. £150). Now we are seeing eBook readers entering the high street let’s hope the prices will start tumbling.

The Reader uses an E-Ink Screen, which gives the user a paper like reading experience. You can store around 160 books in the memory and the battery will last for around 6,800 page turns. I myself have the older PRS-500 model and probably only have to charge it once every couple of weeks.

If you are concerned about buying Sony’s propriety eBook format then not to worry, you can also read ePub formatted books as well as PDF files. The .epub format is fast becoming an industry standard and many publishers are releasing their titles in this format, Penguin and HarperColins are just two publishers.

You will be able to buy books from both the Sony Connect store and Waterstones.com - all the titles sold at Waterstones will be in the ePub format. There are now a number of software and hardware readers which support the ePub format, so all your purchases will be readable in the years to come, no matter which hardware you then have.

If you wish to read public domain books there are plenty of sites; Feedbooks.com have all their titles available for free and in the ePub format.

All the Project Gutenberg eBooks can be read on the Sony Reader. Just download any .txt file and drag onto you reader using the provided software - it really is that easy.

In the future we are hopeful that Sony will release their Reader in other European countries; perhaps Germany will be next.

Where to buy the Sony Reader Digital Book online in the U.K.
SonyStyle.co.uk - available in Silver (PRS-505/SC) for £199 (Pre-Order)

If you are looking for a free eBook reader for your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch then you might want to try the new Stanza reader from Lexcycle.

I don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch myself so have no first-hand experience, but Feedbooks co-found Hadrien Gardeur, has made a post over on mobileread.com that Stanza has the ability to download ePub books directly from FeedBooks.com using their API. FeedBooks have many of the top classics found at gutenberg.org, from Jane Austin to Alexandre Dumas to Jules Verne.

For those of you who don’t know, the IDPF ePub format is an open standard eBook format that is fast being adopted by many big name publishers including Penguin UK and O’Reilly as well as projects such as Feedbooks.com.

Over the coming months we are likely to see a number of iPhone apps that will allow you to read those free, public domain eBooks from Project Gutenberg, and Stanza will certainly continue to be one of the top ones. So, if you want to read Project Gutenberg books on your iPhone, then just stop by the app store and download Stanza now.

For more information about Stanza on the iPhone visit www.lexcycle.com/iphone

For more information on accessing FeedBooks.com from within Stanza visit www.feedbooks.com/help/iphone

A Million Plus Books Free for the Taking!

July 4 2008

The Third Annual World eBook Fair Starts July 4th.

“Own Your Own Library” is the theme of this year’s World eBook Fair.

Starting July 4th you will be able to do just that in an unprecedented opportunity to download books in the widest variety ever available.

Visit www.worldebookfair.org to get started.

Project Gutenberg and partner sponsors encourage readers to create the “personal library” of their choice in a “personal computer.”  Most of the fair’s electronic books are free of charge, and an additional 160,000 or more have coupon or discount purchases available during the month.

All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:

• eBooks in over 100 Different Languages!
• eBooks designed for cell phones!
• eBooks designed for Adobe readers!
• eBooks designed for plain text readers!
• eBooks out loud in theatrical performances!
• eBooks that your computer can read aloud to you!
• eBooks that can be easily quoted in school papers!
• 160,000 eBooks in brand new commercial editions!!!
• Music, movies, etc. are also included. . . .

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Marie Lebert has completely rewritten and brought up-to-date her excellent article on the history of Project Gutenberg - Ed

Contents

• Overview
• A Bet Since 1971
• The Method
• Shared Proofreading
• Becoming Multingual
• Public Domain vs. Copyright
• From the Past to the Future
• Chronology
• Stats
• Links

OVERVIEW

• August 1997: 1,000 books
• April 2002: 5,000 books
• October 2003: 10,000 books
• January 2005: 15,000 books
• December 2006: 20,000 books
• April 2008: 25,000 books

In July 1971, Michael Hart created Project Gutenberg with the goal of making available for free, and electronically, literary works belonging to public domain. A pioneer site in a number of ways, Project Gutenberg was the first information provider on the internet and is the oldest digital library. When the internet became popular, in the mid-1990s, the project got a boost and an international dimension. The number of electronic books rose from 1,000 (in August 1997) to 5,000 (in April 2002), 10,000 (in October 2003), 15,000 (in January 2005), 20,000 (in December 2006) and 25,000 (in April 2008), with a current production rate of around 340 new books each month. With 55 languages and 40 mirror sites around the world, books are being downloaded by the tens of thousands every day. Continue Reading »

As of May 21, 2008: “Original Project Gutenberg eBook” site totals have reached 28,000, details below.

Please do not forget the 1600+ from PG of Australia, the ~500 from PG Europe, and the ~100 from PG Canada, with a detailed list included below. Not to mention the sites: Gutenberg.cc with 75,000+ eBooks, and Project Runeberg with eBooks in the Scandinavian languages.

Please note: the figures presented here are usually the more conservative figures people have presented, but the date of our eBook #25,000 was said to have been slightly earlier than reported. Personally, I would prefer to be a little cautious about reporting the numbers of eBooks, but if anyone would like to help us with the accounting, that would be GRRRREAT!!!

slightly edited version of Michael’s entry from the May 2008 monthly newsletter — Ed

Chinese Moves Up!

The Chinese collection of eBooks at Project Gutenberg has been increasing steadily and there are now over 300 titles in the archive. The PG Chinese eBook collection has now taken over 5th place in the language lists (excluding English.) Congratulations to everyone involved in producing this collection. Continue Reading »