August 2006 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Librivox and PG
by Onorio Catenacci 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi all, I thought this article in the NY Times might be of some interest to the folks who subscribe to this mailing list: <http://tinyurl.com/j9nwo> It's discussing Librivox--which is a volunteer effort to make audiobooks of public domain works. Project Gutenberg is mentioned in passing. -- Onorio Catenacci We're all just doves, Trying to find our way home.

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PG Wiki is online
by Marcello Perathoner 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

I switched the site to use the wiki software. Please check your favorite section of the site (esp. Sub-Projects) and report everything that is broken to me. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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No Subject
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

guess who said this to whom: > "The good news is that you guys have managed to buy > every major legislative body in the planet, but you know > the problem is, the bad news is that you're up against > a dedicated foe that is younger and smarter than you are > and will be alive when you are dead, and has historical forces > on its side, and is using its technological acumen very adeptly to > ward off all your efforts of control and you're gonna lose that one. > I mean you're fifty-five years old and these kids are seventeen and > they're just smarter than you are. So you're gonna lose that one. > But the good news is you guys are mean sons of bitches and you've > been figuring out ways to rip off audiences and artists for centuries really, > and all you gotta do is get outta bed a little earlier in the morning for a spell > and you'll find new ways of doing it. I have every faith in you and you should > give yourselves credit, instead of howling that you're going to be victimized. > It's not like you to be victimized." scroll down for the answer... > -- EFF Founder and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow delivers a razor-wire > bouquet to Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman. -bowerbird p.s. compliments of neal lipner, via the bob lefsetz listserve. bob is a great read... > http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

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Project Gutenberg mentioned on Russian web page
by Andrew Sly 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

Well, it's nice to see PG getting some exposure in other languages. Take a look at: http://www.classes.ru/ebooks-in-english.htm Andrew

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re: [gutvol-d] Re: Search by subject for ebooks?
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Aug '06

23 Aug '06

grendelkhan said: > I'm going to be entering a Library Science program this fall, > which I reckon would make me an incipient professional librarian-- > I'd be quite interested in applying cataloguing standards to the PG catalog. yes, that would be a good project for you... :+) and perhaps even a more useful one would be making a system so people searching worldcat (and similar global catalogs) could _discover_ the p.g. versions of books they were seeking, and then _download_ them with a single click. let's make p.g. books _convenient_ for people... -bowerbird

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most interesting lecture i've heard in a very long time
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Aug '06

23 Aug '06

see this blog entry from "joel on software" for a discussion about cataloging a library: > http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.378798.0 although that topic has much relevance here, the reason for this message is a comment on that entry that pointed to this video of a lecture: > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143 the talk -- about "games with a purpose" -- is the most interesting lecture i've heard in a long time, and is a rather stunning exposition of some of the things i've talked about in the past here, in regard to summoning the power of distributed effort on the net. one such post was on "the amazing turk" at amazon, which farms out tasks requiring human intelligence to people who are paid a small amount to fulfill them. this lecture goes one step further by turning the tasks into _games_, which people play just for the fun of it. the twist is that, when the game is structured correctly, people furnish very-high-quality data, and _lots_ of it. given the difficulty of the challenges already taken on -- one big example is labeling images on the web -- plus the success achieved, something as dirt-simple as the correction of typos in o.c.r. results is well-assured; and even much more difficult problems like translations suddenly seem much more within reach than they were... but the most fascinating aspect of all of these applications is that people are creating valuable data in the process of _playing_games_... they're not just volunteering their time out of a sense of duty or obligation. they are having _fun_. without impugning the nobility of any altruistic volunteers, it seems to me that fun is a much more dependable motive. all in all, his research shows luis von ahn is a sharp cookie; his lecture is 50+ minutes long, but it's well worth the time. -bowerbird > www.captcha.net > www.espgame.org > www.peekaboom.org

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re: [gutvol-d] how many books has google scanned so far?
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

bruce said: > At the moment, I've found 86,000 full view books, > and 30,000 books with either no view, or snippet view. thank you! -bowerbird

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how many books has google scanned so far?
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

hey bruce, what's your latest count on how many books google has scanned? how many public domain? post-1923? -bowerbird

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Re: [gutvol-d] Librivox audio files
by Joshua Hutchinson 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

Yep, that makes perfect sense. Thanks, Andrew. I'll see about getting the audio files posted under their own number. Josh > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andrew Sly" <sly(a)victoria.tc.ca> > To: "Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion" <gutvol-d(a)pglaf.org> > Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] Librivox audio files > Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:23:32 -0700 (PDT) > > > > It can create problems from the cataloging point of view. > > You could have a situation where an ebook is updated, and > the audio book cannot easily be, so the two are not "in-sync". > > The process of creating an audio book from a PG text is > not merely one of reformatting, or adding markup. There > is substantial creative effort involved. (to the point > where the result will be markedly different, if done > by different individuals.) > > To use copyright lingo, this is clearly a "derivative work." > It is derived from the original text, but is also a new item > of its own. > > For popular titles it could easily be possible to eventually > end up with multiple readings of them. Trying to keep these > distinct for a user if they are all on the same bibliographic > record page would be no fun at all. > > And forgive me for stating a truism here. Unlike text files, > each recorded instance of spoken word or music is unique. > You can't run a diff over two individually produced versions > and create one improved version from the results. :) > > > Does that seem reasonable? (and hopefully understandable) > > Andrew > On Thu, 17 Aug 2006, Joshua Hutchinson wrote: > > > Really? In my experience, the only thing we've learned from audio files is > > that the fastest way to start a flame war on gutvol-d is to post a whole > > bunch of audio files of PG texts in new numbers! :) > > > > Seriously, since these texts are specifically read from PG texts, posting > > them in a new number seems a waste to me, but I'm willing to listen to > > arguments for why that should be. > > > > JHutch > > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Andrew Sly" <sly(a)victoria.tc.ca> > > > To: "Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion" <gutvol-d(a)pglaf.org> > > > Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] Librivox audio files > > > Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:18:04 -0700 (PDT) > > > > > > > > > > > > I believe that experience has shown that, in a case such as > > > you mention below, it would work better to have an audio > > > book posted under a new number. > > > > > > > > > Andrew > > > > > > On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Joshua Hutchinson wrote: > > > > > > > I remember discussing this before, but I can't remember what the final > > word > > > > on it was. > > > > > > > > Librivox (www.librivox.org) has quite a few audio readings taken from our > > > > texts. They are released to the public domain (no copyright on them at > > all). > > > > > > > > > > http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=881&sid=b24c8b14c49472aab8f7f410a… > > > > > > > > The individual audio book pages on www.archive.org links to this CC > > Public > > > > Domain notice: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ > > > > > > > > My question is this: > > > > > > > > Do we need to run a separete clearance request before posting audio files > > > > under the PG text number they came from? > > > > > > > > For example, if I grabbed Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz > > > > (http://librivox.org/dorothy-and-the-wizard-in-oz-by-l-frank-baum/) and > > with > > > > David reposted it under our etext #420 > > (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/420) > > > > do I need to first get a new clearance? (I'm planing on redoing the > > text as > > > > a TEI master at the same time, so we'll get TEI and PDF along with the > > > > existing file formats). > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Josh > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gutvol-d mailing list > > > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > > > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > gutvol-d mailing list > > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d > > > > > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d >

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re: [gutvol-d] Librivox audio files
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

andrew said: > And forgive me for stating a truism here. Unlike text files, > each recorded instance of spoken word or music is unique. > You can't run a diff over two individually produced versions > and create one improved version from the results. :) if i remember correctly, andrew, you are blind? which makes this observation even more compelling to me... -bowerbird

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