The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Correct but I don't value the creation of an end-format version as much as a proper source. A TEI/DocBook/DTBook version is infinitely more valuable since you can pretty much create anything out of it. The reason why I can instantly turn inline footnotes to real footnotes in every ePub/Mobipocket file on Feedbooks the next time that I upgrade our system is because we properly mark them as such. A book produced with Book Designer on the other hand will probably have hyperlinks instead of a distinctive mark-up for footnotes.
The real value is in creating the structure of the book or using a proper mark-up for semantic elements such as footnotes (and in the case of the average public domain book, proper proofreading/typesetting).

That I strongly agree with. In some sense I feel that the creation of end-format versions here is wasted work (in the tradition of publisher makeing a paper book and throwing away the data files :-). It would be much better if the proof reading and work is fed back to a version that in the future can be used to create other end formats. Also all the work to proof read should also really be fed back to Project Gutenberg in the case of Gutenberg books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Also all the work to proof read should also really be fed back to Project Gutenberg in the case of Gutenberg books.

My experience is that it's a total waste of time to send corrections back to PG - they never act on them. I've done so on several occasions, and never had so much an an acknowledgement back. None of the books concerned has ever been corrected.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Correct but I don't value the creation of an end-format version as much as a proper source.

I share your viewpoint, but those are us who are actively involved in creating books are probably outnumbered 1000 to 1 by those who simply read them. The typical reader doesn't give two hoots what source format a book is it - they're just interested in being able to download a nice version of it for their device.

Look at all the thousands and thousands of members this site has. How many people actively upload books here? That number is in single figures.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

My experience is that it's a total waste of time to send corrections back to PG - they never act on them. I've done so on several occasions, and never had so much an an acknowledgement back. None of the books concerned has ever been corrected.

That is a pity. Maybe it just takes time? Are you sending it to the correct place? I saw a request on the Gutenberg mailing list a couple of days ago asking for volunteers to handle the corrections they had received for a book so I assumed this was a process that was working.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I share your viewpoint, but those are us who are actively involved in creating books are probably outnumbered 1000 to 1 by those who simply read them. The typical reader doesn't give two hoots what source format a book is it - they're just interested in being able to download a nice version of it for their device.

Look at all the thousands and thousands of members this site has. How many people actively upload books here? That number is in single figures.

Sure but I don't see your point: on Feedbooks there's as many registered users as Mobileread and we have hundreds of thousands of people downloading books each month.

My point is that it would be much better if you used a different workflow, that can easily evolve in the future. Let's take a simple example: when people first started uploading books in Mobipocket on MobileRead, most of these books were missing an author because of the way Book Designer handled this file format. If such a thing ever happened on Feedbooks, it would be super easy to fix: I would simply dump the cache, fix the output and every file would have correct metadata. On the other hand, with end format uploads on Mobileread, you would have to re-generate and re-upload every single Mobipocket file.

Relying on a source-format is much more flexible and future proof: I'm not saying that the readers care about the source format, but with a real source format it's much easier to support any new format, improve the formatting for every file available and provide a better overall experience.

Sure, uploaders on Mobileread are doing a great job proofreading/typesetting books, it's too bad though that instead of working with a real publishing workflow (where the structure of the book and semantic elements are important) you rely only on end formats.

[Robotech_Master]

Oddly enough, apparently Gutenberg is now looking for volunteers to correct previously-proofread books. So maybe they're trying to change that.

Hadrien, you still haven't answered my question yet, as far as I can tell: when is the ePub-with-footnotes of Public Domain going to be available? It's been about four weeks since last I asked…

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Sure but I don't see your point: on Feedbooks there's as many registered users as Mobileread and we have hundreds of thousands of people downloading books each month.

Just to test the Feedbook version I went and downloaded it.

But I noticed a problem on Linux and copying the files to the Cybook. For some reason I could not copy the files directly. I think it is because of the ":" in the filename since this usually causes problem. So I had to rename them when copying which is inconvenient.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

Hadrien, you still haven't answered my question yet, as far as I can tell: when is the ePub-with-footnotes of Public Domain going to be available? It's been about four weeks since last I asked…

Have you thought of converting it yourself, Robotech_Master?
You could upload it either on this site, or Hadrien's Feedbooks, or wherever you liked.
And it might conceivably be a useful addition to a portfolio of work if you are tempted to pursue a career as a converter, as mentioned in your other recent thread.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Have you thought of converting it yourself, Robotech_Master?
You could upload it either on this site, or Hadrien's Feedbooks, or wherever you liked.
And it might conceivably be a useful addition to a portfolio of work if you are tempted to pursue a career as a converter, as mentioned in your other recent thread.

An excellent thought Patricia. Many of us have a lot of other things going on in addition to creating ebooks. We always welcome new ebook creators.

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Have you thought of converting it yourself, Robotech_Master?
You could upload it either on this site, or Hadrien's Feedbooks, or wherever you liked.
And it might conceivably be a useful addition to a portfolio of work if you are tempted to pursue a career as a converter, as mentioned in your other recent thread.

I've considered it. But if someone else already has it almost completed, I'd as soon not duplicate their effort.