http://www.freeliterature.org

[marcdh]

thanks, cbell ... more information arrives by mail

[zelda_pinwheel]

thanks for this info, marc, your site looks like a very worthwhile project and already a great ressource. i have bookmarked it and will come back to it in the future, definitely. welcome to the forum !

[cbell]

Mail received, thanks, Marc.

I don't know where other posters got the idea the end format will be PDF and I suggest they take another look at the site. I'm not affiliated with freeliterature.org in any way, except for volunteering to help proof-read (yesterday).

The plan is to work with original OCR'd text files to produce proof-read plain txt and htm books for Project Gutenberg.

[marcdh]

Yes, there was a mix-up. My first post was about my own site (freeliterature.org) - which I let follow with one to announce the existence of the World eBook Fair (and they seem to propagate pdf). Caused a bit of confusion

[marcdh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This seems very worthwhile, but it's a great pity that they've chosen PDF as a format. As we all know, PDF was never intended to be an eBook format and, although it can be extremely effective if the book is formatted for the page size of a particular device, it's very poor when it comes to dealing with the multitude of different screen sizes that are out there.

As stated elsewhere ... the pdf format: World eBook Fair seems to propagate that ... though the contributing sites DO have a lot of other formats.

My own site: http://www.freeliterature.org links to 600+ sites that publish a lot of different formats - including some specialised in mobiles.

The Project Gutenberg texts are picked up and made suitable by them ... also some people within PG are busy with that.

[cbell]

Deleted

[beppe]

thank you Marc. I visited your site and it looks both an important resource and a worthwhile project. I have bookmarked it and posted its reference in the Italian Thread. (It is in black in my signature).

I will go back to your site for further consideration.

[marcdh]

Thanks for the interest, Beppe. You're very welcome.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by cbell

I've wanted to help Project Gutenberg for a long time, as I've been downloading and reading their ebooks for many years.

I've chosen my first proof-reading "assignment" at freeliterature.org and I can't wait to get started.

Marcdh is really helpful and supportive. I have simple, clear instructions and a PDF scan and text file to work with. I hope this is just the first of many ebooks I work on for PG!

If this makes me 'affiliated' with freeliterature.org, then I'm happy to be

I was under the impression that Distributed Proofreading was PG's proofreading system.

[marcdh]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I was under the impression that Distributed Proofreading was PG's proofreading system.

DP is only one of the options to volunteer for PG. It is indeed a good system where you can proof online even a page a day, if you don't have much time to spare. But you can't (for proofreading) choose a whole book for yourself. Everybody (thousands of people) works on everything. Books go through a number of rounds, and the time they spend in DP before actually being posted to the Project Gutenberg depends on the interest there is for them from people to work on. I worked for DP for about three years (from "proofer" to "project verificator - after that, I was on the posting team of Project Gutenberg.

I quite often "talk" with Michael Hart (who invented the e-book and started Project Gutenberg) - He included FreeLiterature in his press releases for the World eBook Fair.

Besides DP there are a lot of volunteers who produce e-text from books on their very own. I myself teamed up with a friend for three years. The same text should be viewed by different eyes to become a good e-text. With FreeLiterature I want to give people the opportunity to work on a complete book. They do a first or second round proofreading. I do a third (and some automated checks) and the formatting and posting to PG.

People wanting to do more than proofreading, will get from me all the help they need to produce a good e-text from scratch (scanning, ocr,...)

Hope this gives a bit of background? - Please ask if you want more information.

Thanks for the interest.

[HarryT]

Why re-invent the wheel? Why not just work for DP if you want to do something to support PG?

[cbell]

Deleted

[marcdh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why re-invent the wheel? Why not just work for DP if you want to do something to support PG?

A very long story ... and the way DP works is also subject of ongoing discussions in PG volunteer mailing-lists like gutvol-d.

Best way to find out: register at DP, and see if you fit in the (at times rather tight) system.

[HarryT]

I have been a DP member for many years, hence my question. With your system of one person doing an entire book, what happens if the person loses interest? What about the really boring books that probably nobody would want to do the whole of?

[marcdh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have been a DP member for many years, hence my question. With your system of one person doing an entire book, what happens if the person loses interest? What about the really boring books that probably nobody would want to do the whole of?

For one, people can chose a book for themselves to work on, and have a total preview in advance online. I will try to avoid the really boring ones ... If someone wants to do some work for FreeLiterature and prefers e.g. fiction, I will provide. People can also suggest a book. In any circumstances, it is always possible someone loses interest or drops out for a number of reasons. Unavoidable, I guess, but those texts will be picked up again.

I can't predict how it's going to turn out in the long run. Just started out and didn't conduct a marketing survey. Can only try, can't I? But I'm quite confident in the outcome, though.