[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Apr 20 10:00:41 PDT 2005
GWeekly_April_20.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, April 20, 2005 PT1*
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We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
54 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
16,051 eBooks As Of Today!!!
12,989 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 1095 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~60% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~21% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
3,949 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~475 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 313 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 73 eBooks Per Week This Year
54 This Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000
*
***Introduction
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
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[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
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hart at pobox.com and gbnewby at pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 03.50 months of this year, we produced 1095 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Nov 1997 to produce our first 1095 eBooks!
That's 15 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 Years!
54 New eBooks This Week
50 New eBooks Last Week
104 New eBooks This Month [Apr]
313 Average Per Month in 2005
336 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
1095 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
12989 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 51.50 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,051 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
12,401 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,650 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
429 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
6,627 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below.
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as:
Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files
DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files
eBooks at Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files
Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<<
Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files
Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files
Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files
PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change
Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files
Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files
Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files=====
Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 Total Files
These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of
their donors: some are one file per book; some have a
file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a
single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons
I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the
overcounting or duplication of numbers.
If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~45,714 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~34,286 Unique eBooks
***
Please also note that over 23,000 eBooks are listed via
The Online Books Page, of which over 5,300 are from PG.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar
listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is
happening with the IPL, please let us know. Inquiries,
made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up
any current information.
You can try a new IPL service at:
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/
It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page.
Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.
***
Today Is Day #105 of 2005
This Completes Week #15 and Month #03.50 [364 days this year]
259 Days/40 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,949 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
73 Weekly Average in 2005
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
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***
Statistical Review
In the 15 weeks of this year, we have produced 1095 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 11/97 to produce our FIRST 1095 eBooks!!!
That's 15 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1095
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
Nov 1997 King Henry VI, Part 1, William Shakespeare [WL][1ws01xxx.xxx] 1100C
Nov 1997 The Riverman, by Stewart Edward White [White #3][rvrmnxxx.xxx] 1099
Nov 1997 The Turmoil, A novel, by Booth Tarkington [BT#5] [turmoxxx.xxx] 1098
Nov 1997 Mrs. Warren's Profession, by G. B. Shaw [Shaw #4] [wrproxxx.xxx] 1097
The Faith of Men, by Jack London 1096
Nov 1997 Light of the Western Stars, Zane Grey [Grey #4][lwstrxxx.xxx] 1095
Nov 1997 Tamburlaine the Great PT 1, by Christopher Marlowe[tmbn1xxx.xxx] 1094
Nov 1997 The Beast in the Jungle, by Henry James[James #15][bstjgxxx.xxx] 1093
Nov 1997 The Description of Wales, by Giraldus Cambrensis [dscwlxxx.xxx] 1092
Nov 1997 Heroes and Hero Worship, by Thomas Carlyle [TC#3] [herosxxx.xxx] 1091
Nov 1997 Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift[#4][bstafxxx.xxx] 1090
Nov 1997 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London[#19-26][mfacexxx.xxx] 1089
Oct 1997 Rolf in the Woods, by Ernest Thompson Seton [rolfwxxx.xxx] 1088
Oct 1997 Baartock, by Lewis Roth [brtckxxx.xxx] 1087C
Oct 1997 A Horse's Tale, by Mark Twain [Clemens] [MT#12][hrstlxxx.xxx] 1086
Oct 1997 Life of John Sterling, by Thomas Carlyle [TC#2] [strlgxxx.xxx] 1085
Oct 1997 Recipes Tried and True by Presbyterian Ladies' Aid[tandtxxx.xxx] 1084
Oct 1997 The Arrow of Gold, by Joseph Conrad [argldxxx.xxx] 1083
Oct 1997 Voyage of The Paper Canoe, by Nathaniel H. Bishop [pprcnxxx.xxx] 1082
Oct 1997 Dead Souls, by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol [Gogol#1][dsolsxxx.xxx] 1081
Oct 1997 A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift [Swift #3] [mdprpxxx.xxx] 1080
Oct 1997 Life of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne [shndyxxx.xxx] 1079
Oct 1997 The Scouts of the Valley, by Joseph A. Altsheler [sctvlxxx.xxx] 1078
Oct 1997 The Mirror of Kong Ho, by Ernest Bramah [Bramah#2][konghxxx.xxx] 1077
Oct 1997 The Wallet of Kai Lung, by Ernest Bramah[Bramah#1][wklngxxx.xxx] 1076
Oct 1997 The Strength of the Strong, by Jack London [#12][sstrgxxx.xxx] 1075
Oct 1997 The Sea Wolf, by Jack London [Jack London #11] [cwolfxxx.xxx] 1074
Oct 1997 The Death of Olivier Becaille, by Emile Zola [#4] [1zolaxxx.xxx] 1073
Oct 1997 The Miller's Daughter, by Emile Zola [Zola #3] [1zolaxxx.xxx] 1072
Oct 1997 Captain Burle, by Emile Zola [Emile Zola #2] [1zolaxxx.xxx] 1071
Oct 1997 Nana, by Emile Zola [Emile Zola #1] [See note] [1zolaxxx.xxx] 1070
Oct 1997 1st PG Collection of Emile Zola [Emile Zola #1] [1zolaxxx.xxx] 1069
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 16,051 eBooks online as of April 20, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.97 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,318,029 [x 16,051 x $.97 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,051 eBooks online as of April 20, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.62 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.81 when we had 12,401 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,051 eBooks in 33 Years and 09.50 Months We Averaged
~475 Per Year
39.6 Per Month
1.30 Per Day
At 1095 eBooks Done In The 105 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
10.43 Per Day
73 Per Week
313 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 5th was
the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***
*Headline News from Edupage
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
STUDENT FORCED TO TAKE TESTS OFF THE WEB
[What's Good For The College Jocks And Greeks, Not Good For The Masses]
The University of Wyoming has insisted that a student remove copies of
old tests from his Web site. Aaron Narva, a senior at the university,
had posted the tests online and initially sold them to other students.
Later, Narva gave the tests away for free. Narva said that old tests
are a useful study aid, noting that the athletics department as well as
sororities and fraternities make copies of tests available to their
members. Dane Ciolino, professor of copyright law at Loyola University,
said that Narva's comparison fails because by posting the tests
online, he is making many more copies available. Ciolino also noted
that fair use cannot apply if Narva was charging money for the tests.
Narva is charged with violating university policies and will have a
hearing at the university later this month.
CNN, 15 April 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/15/old.tests.website.ap/
BRITS UNVEIL CREATIVE ARCHIVE
The BBC has launched an initiative known as the Creative Archive to
disseminate creative works across the United Kingdom. Modeled on the
Creative Commons in the United States, the Creative Archive License
invites users to download creative materials and use them however they
desire, with a few stipulations. Users of content must cite the
creator; allow others to use newly created works in the same manner;
not use content for commercial gain; and limit use to within the United
Kingdom. The archive is relatively small so far, containing works only
from the British Film Institute, but a spokesperson from the BBC said
the group hopes eventually to make available a vast quantity of content
currently unavailable to the public. She noted that because of the wide
range of copyright concerns, those posting content must work carefully
and thoroughly to meet all requirements. Lawrence Lessig, professor at
Stanford Law School and one of the founders of Creative Commons,
applauded the Creative Archive, saying that the BBC is inviting
consumers to become part of the creative process rather than just
receivers. He said he hopes the program helps U.S. users "think more
progressively about this issue."
Wired News, 18 April 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67239,00.html
LEXISNEXIS DISCLOSES MORE DATA LOSSES
LexisNexis this week revealed that much more personal information was
exposed to identity thieves than reported in estimates released last
month. Information including Social Security numbers for 310,000 U.S.
citizens was exposed--nearly 10 times the 32,000 previously announced
by company officials. According to LexisNexis, the data were
compromised in a total of 59 separate incidents over the past two
years, most of them at subsidiary Seisint, which LexisNexis bought in
July 2004. A spate of data breaches lately has prompted the U.S.
Congress to hold hearings on problems affecting the data-brokerage
industry and to propose regulations that would add strict controls on
the collection and sale of personal information. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
said, "When a company like LexisNexis so badly underestimates its own
ID theft breaches, it is clear that things are totally out of hand."
Reuters, 12 April 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8159934
POKING HOLES IN MICROSOFT'S GRAMMAR CHECKER
Sandeep Krishnamurthy, associate professor of marketing and e-commerce
at the University of Washington, is so incensed with the grammar
checker in Microsoft Word that he has taken to posting examples of what
he sees as the checker's failings on his Web site. He has also called
on Microsoft to improve the checker. Citing egregious grammar mistakes
that the tool does not question, Krishnamurthy said that although it
might be helpful for above-average writers, it actually impedes
below-average writers' efforts to improve their writing skill.
Krishnamurthy said Microsoft should modify the tool to allow users to
select the level of help they need, from basic to advanced. For its
part, Microsoft said in a statement that the tool is not intended to
find or identify all errors. Instead, it is designed "to catch the
kinds of errors that ordinary users make in normal writing situations."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 April 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i32/32a02902.htm
COMPUTER APPLICATION GRADES ESSAYS
A professor at the University of Missouri has developed a computer
application that grades papers and offers advice on writing. Ed Brent,
professor of sociology, created the application, called Qualrus, using
a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Qualrus
evaluates papers based on the structure of sentences and paragraphs and
on the flow of ideas. Instructors can specify which factors of an
assignment are most important, and Qualrus incorporates that
information into the scores it provides. Brent claims the application
improves students' papers and estimated that it saves him more than
200 hours of grading per semester. The tool has been approved for use
across the university, but so far Brent is the only instructor using it.
Brent is also looking for ways to distribute the tool to other
universities and to businesses. [Probably at a large profit]
CNET, 7 April 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5659366.html
UC ELECTRONIC RESERVES RANKLE PUBLISHERS
A system that handles electronic reserves at the University of
California (UC) in San Diego has prompted complaints from publishers
that the university has far exceeded the bounds of fair use. With the
system, materials that faculty put on reserve are made available
electronically, allowing students to access and even print them from
outside the university library. The Association of American Publishers
objected, saying that electronic access substantially changes the
traditional terms of reserve materials and deprives publishers of
sales. Publishers have previously won legal challenges to the
production of coursepacks, which the courts said do not fall under the
terms of fair use. The publishing group insisted the same applies to
electronic resources. Representatives of UC disputed the claims, saying
the reserve system does not infringe on sales of texts. Jonathan
Franklin, associate law librarian at the University of Washington,
noted that the fair use law is not clear and commented that if the
disagreement is ultimately settled by the courts, such a resolution
might provide needed clarification for all concerned.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 April 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/04/2005040701t.htm
CODING CONTEST SHOWS U.S. STUDENTS FALLING BEHIND
[More details below in media avoidance section, Shanhai was winner]
At this year's Association for Computing Machinery International
Collegiate Programming Contest, the University of Illinois's tie for
17th place was the best result for any U.S. team, representing the
worst performance for U.S. institutions in the 29 years of the
competition. Many observers believe the result is indicative of a
variety of factors that have resulted in a striking shift in
technological preeminence away from U.S. schools and companies. As
recently as 1997, the United States came out on top, when a team from
Harvey Mudd College won the competition. David Patterson, president of
the Association for Computing Machinery and a computer science
professor at the University of California, Berkeley, noted, "The U.S.
used to dominate these kinds of programming Olympics." Others pointed
out that applications from outside the United States to computer
science and other technology programs at U.S. graduate schools have
dropped lately.
ZDNet, 7 April 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5659116.html
E-RATE INDICTMENTS HANDED DOWN
Six companies and five individuals have been indicted on charges of
fraud in the federal E-Rate program, which was instituted to provide
funds to connect public schools and libraries to the Internet. A year
ago, a subsidiary of NEC admitted defrauding the program and settled
with prosecutors for $20.7 million. Those indicted this week were
charged with fraud, collusion, and rigging bids. According to the
Justice Department, the accused misrepresented financial terms of
E-Rate projects to school administrators and colluded on pricing and
terms of government contracts. The violations are said to have taken
place in seven states, though all but one defendant are based in
California. The individuals charged face up to five years in prison,
and the indicted companies could be fined as much as $10 million.
Wall Street Journal, 8 April 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111292755907301701,00.html
DUKE SCALES BACK IPOD PROGRAM
Officials at Duke University have said they will cut back a program to
equip incoming students with iPods. Last fall, all 1,600 incoming
freshmen were given the devices as part of a pilot program to see how
they might influence learning. Next year, the university will only
provide iPods to students who enroll in courses that use iPods in the
curriculum. School officials said they were pleased with what they
learned from the program in its first year, but they pointed out that
the larger goal is to incorporate technology into the teaching and
learning processes. The narrower focus of the iPod initiative was
characterized as an evolution of the university's efforts toward that
goal. Lynne O'Brien, who coordinated the iPod program, said some
faculty embraced the devices in their classes, while other faculty were
more skeptical, seeing no real purpose for the devices.
CNET, 6 April 2005
http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5657240.html
TECH COMPANIES LINE UP WITH EU
[No mention of the huge MicroSoft payoff to settle with Gateway]
Five leading technology companies have voiced their support of the
European Union (EU) in its antitrust case against Microsoft. IBM,
Oracle, Red Hat, RealNetworks, and Nokia have applied to join the case
in which the European Commission has already fined Microsoft $640
million and ordered that the company make changes to its operating
systems to increase competition with other vendors. Aside from
RealNetworks, which has previously challenged Microsoft in court, the
other four companies have been reluctant to take a strong public stance
against Microsoft. Thomas Vinje, an attorney for the EU, said the
support from these companies undercuts Microsoft's claim that the case
against it in Europe is not endorsed by others in the technology
industry. It is not clear whether the court hearing the case will
accept the companies' application, but, according to Jonathan Todd,
spokesperson for the EU, their action is not likely to be "relevant or
determining in terms of the outcome of a particular antitrust case."
Washington Post, 6 April 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30610-2005Apr6.html
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
Some of these were covered yesterday by ABC, NBC and CBS, some not:
A little about the new pope:
Previous name: Joseph Ratzinger
New name: Benedict XVI [16th]
Was formerly head of the "Inquisition."
[The Office of Orthodox Catholic Doctrine]
Oldest cardinal elected pope in 300 years.
[Other sources said in over 100 years]
First German pope in 1,000 years
Nickname: "The Enforcer" [Not a joke]
Reported as the most hardline conservative
of all those in the conclave.
Served in Germany's Hitler Youth as a boy.
Deserter from the Germany Army in 1945.
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Congressman "Barney Frank had the best line. He said he'd been the focus of
ethics probes fifteen years ago because he'd `"behaved inappropriately.'"
"I changed my behavior," said Frank.
"Tom DeLay changed the ethics committee."
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE DAY
It now take a majority of the Ethics Committee to contine an investigation.
Since the committee is split equally among Republicans and Democrats, it is
unlikely anyone will ever be investigated again without someone crossing an
interestingly drawn party line.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Fewer Chinese and Indian students will come to the U.S.
for their educations, more will graduate at home, as an
educational revolution has taken place.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
When you listen to the news you the only income levels
you usually hear are something such as 2001's $51,407.
BUT. . .this isn't one income, it is THREE incomes put
together to appear as one income.
To achieve this fictional family income level you must
add together the median income for men plus the median
income for women plus ~1,000 of part time labor:
$29,101 Median Income For Men
$16,614 Median Women's Income
$ 5,691 1105 Hour Minium Wage
------- --------------------------
$51,402 ~Median Family Income
All figures from 2001, more details on request.
*
"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same,
it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.
I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.
If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.
I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.
BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.
This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.
***
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