Bowerbird wrote:
Jon said:
The focus should be on giving the proofers better tools to do their job better and easier, and not trying to replace them.
that's been my focus.
Really? Many of your prior posts have essentially implied that DP is unnecessary *today*. Here's your equation: abbyy7 + your-sooper-dooper-tools = no-more-need-for-DP This to me sounds like "replace DP by automated tools" which even those involved in DP would probably love to see happen. But I know enough that achieving this goal is a long ways off, requiring sentient-level AI (think of Commander Data in Star Trek TNG.) Of course, tools to help locate errors is *good*, but even these tools need to be used by humans with care, with eyes wide open, knowing that such tools will find false positives, and other problems. Additionally, it is not only important to find scanning errors (and this includes full Unicode character set support), but it is *equally* important to understand, and markup, the *structures* associated with all portions of the content. This is something that *has* to be done by human beings. It cannot be done automagically, at least with anything near acceptable accuracy (as shown by a few trivial examples I posted here a while back.) To produce high-quality Structured Digital Texts requires a significant expenditure of human sweat. One can't get around this fact of life. DP has figured out a clever way to mobilize a large number of willing volunteers to do most of this work (I suppose you will say these people are being duped.) Moving a hill looks formidable to one person, even if they have a bulldozer; but 10000 people with pails and shovels can move the hill in no time, with time to celebrate with a huge barbecue party in the late evening. <smile/>
and i'll be releasing an app to do just that.
We all look forward to your app. Is it part of an open-source project where you can leverage the help of many sharp people? Or are you a go-it-alone kind of person? Do you intend to open source your codebase, or donate it to PG/DP, so it can benefit those who need it most? Or do you plan to keep it proprietary and sell it for Big $$$ (good luck!), so PG/DP would not be able to afford it? Or are you planning for your app make DP a thing of the past?
what have you been doing in this specific regard?
Discussing the general issues associated with this topic. That's a legitimate thing to do: to add to the idea pool. Successful application development is built upon the synthesis of ideas and requirements contributed by many people with different perspectives and skill sets. Nothing worthwhile is developed in a vacuum. PG succeeded as it has because Michael Hart mobilized *people* with all kinds of skill sets. He didn't write a cool app on his own. DP has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams because it is built around mobilizing *people*. People are what make good things happen, not solitary figures working in a basement, out of touch with reality and with people, releasing some "app" every once in a while. This is why I keep asking you why you don't move your project to SourceForge and get a bunch of sharp people, each of whom will bring in skills you don't have, to help you build your vision? (You do have a lot of good ideas.) It just amazes me why you don't see the importance of *people* in the equation of digitizing the Public Domain. Jon Noring