Weekly_June_29.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 29, 2005 PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******
Project Gutenberg Is 34 Years Old This Week!!!
Project Gutenberg of Europe Does 100 eBooks and 65 Articles in 1st Month!!!
[Details available in separate documents on request]
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consideration of some attention as to possibly being off by a few eBooks.
Please note that PT2 of this Newsletter is currently in flux, as we shift
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HOT REQUESTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
PROJECT GUTENBERG OF EUROPE TAKES OFF!!!
"EUROPE'S FLAMING JUNE 2005"
"PROJECT GUTENBERG EUROPE" STARTS REGULAR ACTIVITY
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http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe]
This past month marked the official beginnings of our
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entries expected in over 100 languages. In the first
month we have seen a total of 100 about eBooks and an
assortment of 65 articles in total, thus representing
62 Eurasian languages and dialects. Volunteer effort
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choices of general interest for whole continent.
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conferences and promotions--in Eastern Europe (Macedonia, Serbia, etc).
[For details please email hart AT pglaf.org]
Here is the list of the first 6 PGE languages
1 Afrikaans
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5 Basque
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58 Turkish
59 Ukrainian
60 Vlach
61 Walloon
62 Welsh
[63 Whew!]
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Wanted: People who are involved in conversations on Slashdot, Salon, etc.
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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
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
74 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from Edupage, etc.
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
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*eBook Milestones
This Weekend We Should Be Twice As Close to 20,000 as 10,000 !!!
16,636 eBooks As Of Today!!!
13,574 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
That's 250 eBooks per Month for 54 Months
We Have Produced 1680 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~66% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
3,364 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~482 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 282 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 67 eBooks Per Week This Year
76 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,
News, Notes & Queries, and 2. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
[Since we are between Newsletter editors, these 2 parts may undergo a
few changes while we are finding a new Newsletter editor. Email us:
hart@pobox.com and gbnewby@pglaf.org if you would like to volunteer.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
***
***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
*
Darwin!!!
Would anyone like to work on reproofing our Darwin collection
and creating a compilation file as requested by our readers.
We could also use some help making some new editions of
"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and "Frankenstein."
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We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
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http://www.archive.org
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Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any
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Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive!
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REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
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Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 06.00 months of this year, we produced 1680 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to Mar 1999 to produce our first 1680 eBooks!
That's 26 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 Years!!!
76 New eBooks This Week
42 New eBooks Last Week
273 New eBooks This Month [Jun]
~280 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
1680 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
13574 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 54.00 Months!
About 250 books per month
16,636 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
13,155 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,481 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
461 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
7,081 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
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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@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 #182 of 2005
This Completes Week #26 and Month #06.00 [364 days this year]
182 Days/34 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
3,364 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
65 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 26 weeks of this year, we have produced 1680 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 3/99 to produce our FIRST 1680 eBooks!!!
That's 26 WEEKS as Compared to ~27 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1680
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
[Note: books without month and year entries have been reposted]
Apr 1999 Life of Charlotte Bronte, V2, by E. C. Gaskell[#2][2locbxxx.xxx] 1700
Apr 1999 The Vanished Messenger by E. Phillips Oppenheim #4[vmsgrxxx.xxx] 1699
Apr 1999 The Survivors of the Chancellor, by Jules Verne #9[tsotcxxa.xxx] 1698
(See also #1652, from a different source)
Madam How and Lady Why, by Charles Kingsley 1697
Apr 1999 The Club of Queer Trades, by G. K. Chesterton/GKC8[tcoqtxxx.xxx] 1696
Apr 1999 The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton/GKC7[tmwhtxxx.xxx] 1695
Apr 1999 Our Legal Heritage, by S. A. Reilly [rlglhxxx.xxx] 1694C
(Updated version in:) [rlglhxxa.xxx]
Apr 1999 Dangerous Days, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [MRR #8] [ddaysxxx.xxx] 1693
Mar 1999 1492, by Mary Johnston [For Columbus Day, 1998] [c1492xxx.xxx] 1692
Mar 1999 [Res: I Have A Dream, by Martin Luther King, Jr. [ xxx.xxx] 1691*
(See appendix item #7)
Mar 1999 Marie, by H. Rider Haggard [H. Rider Haggard #4][mariexxx.xxx] 1690
(Note: the filename mariexxx.xxx is also used for a totally different (eBook,
#3451 in etext02)
Mar 1999 The Pivot of Civilization, By Margaret Sanger [pvcvlxxx.xxx] 1689
The People of the Abyss, by Jack London 1688
Mar 1999 Parmenides, by Plato [More Socrates] Plato #24][prmdsxxx.xxx] 1687
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 The Secret of the Night, by Gaston Leroux [GL #3][tsotnxxx.xxx] 1686
Mar 1999 Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux[GL#2][ylormxxx.xxx] 1685
[Contains ASCII diagrams, best viewed with non-proportional fonts.]
Mar 1999 The Egoist, by George Meredith[George Meredith #6][egostxxx.xxx] 1684
Honorine, by Honore de Balzac [Tr.: Clara Bell] 1683
Mar 1999 Menexenus, by Plato [Yet More Socrates] [Plato#23][mnxnsxxx.xxx] 1682
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 Eryxias, not by Plato [More Socrates] [Plato#22][ryxisxxx.xxx] 1681
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, by Honore de Balzac [Tr.: Clara Bell] 1680
Mar 1999 Hiram The Young Farmer, by Burbank L. Todd [hrmyfxxx.xxx] 1679
An Historical Mystery, by Honore de Balzac 1678
[Tr.: Katharine Prescott Wormeley]
Mar 1999 Alcibiades II, not Plato [More Socrates][Plato#21][2lcbdxxx.xxx] 1677
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 Alcibiades I, by Plato? [More Socrates] [Plato#20][1lcbdxxx.xxx] 1676
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 New Forces in Old China, by Arthur Judson Brown [ldchnxxx.xxx] 1675
.(Note: the filename ldchnxxx.xxx is also used for a totally different
.(eBook, #3313 in etext02)
Mar 1999 The Narrative of Sojourner Truth [Slavery] [sjrnrxxx.xxx] 1674
[Author: Dictated by Sojourner Truth] [Editor: Olive Gilbert]
Mar 1999 Lesser Hippias, by [?]Plato[More Socrates]Plato19][lhppsxxx.xxx] 1673
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 Gorgias, by Plato [A Socratic Dialog] [Plato #18][grgisxxx.xxx] 1672
[Translated by Benjamin Jowett]
Mar 1999 When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [#7][whammxxx.xxx] 1671
Martin Luther's Small Catechism, Tr.: by Robert E. Smith 1670
The Human Drift, by Jack London 1669
Mar 1999 Death of the Laird's Jock, by Walter Scott [WS #8][tpschxxx.xxx] 1668
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,452,222,645 that would be 16,636 x 64,522,226 = 1.07 Trillion !!!
With 16,636 eBooks online as of July 06, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.93 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,522,226 x 16,636 x $.93 = ~$1 trillion]
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]
With 16,636 eBooks online as of July 06, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.60 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.76 when we had 13,155 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 16,636 eBooks in 34 Years and 00.00 Months We Averaged
~489 Per Year
40.8 Per Month
1.40 Per Day
At 1680 eBooks Done In The 182 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
9.2 Per Day
65 Per Week
280 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]
U.S. WILL KEEP CONTROL OF INTERNET ROOT
Despite previous statements from U.S. officials that the country would
cede its control over the Internet to the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, a set of principles outlined this week by
the Bush administration states that no such transfer of control will
take place. The United States maintains control of the "root" system
that determines which domains will function, including not just generic
domains such as .com and .org but also country-specific domains. The
principles, which were announced unexpectedly at a conference in
Washington, D.C., are seen by many as a snub of the world community in
general and of certain of its critics in particular. Pakistan and
Brazil, for example, have long complained that the United States has
too much control over the Internet and should give the world's poorer
countries the opportunity to be equal participants.
ZDNet, 30 June 2005
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5770937.html
ONLINE ENROLLMENTS CONTINUE TO RISE
Research firm Eduventures has released a new report that puts the
number of students enrolled in wholly online courses last year at close
to one million, doubling the number from just two years earlier. The
report predicts another 500,000 or more students will enroll in online
courses over the next two years. The company estimates that by the end
of 2005, students enrolled in entirely online courses will constitute
more than 15 percent of the total number of students enrolled at
degree-granting institutions in the United States. Although much of the
growth in online course enrollments is taking place in the for-profit
higher education market, nonprofit institutions are closing the gap,
according to Sean Gallagher, senior analyst at Eduventures. As more and
more nonprofit institutions put their courses online, he said, "the
rate at which for-profits are stealing market share is beginning to
slow down."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 June 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/06/2005062802t.htm
BRITAIN SEES FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN PUBLISHING
A new study by the British Library predicts that by the year 2020, 90
percent of newly published work in the United Kingdom will be available
electronically. Just 10 percent of works published then will be printed
only, and half of those published electronically will also be printed,
according to the study. Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the library,
said such a "seismic shift" in publishing requires different methods to
ensure adequate protection and storage of the electronic materials. The
library is developing a digital storage system that it hopes will prove
sufficiently robust. Three copies of every item will exist, with one
stored off-site for recovery in the event of a catastrophic failure. A
spokesperson from the library noted that as published content is
increasingly in electronic format, officials must make decisions about
what new types of content they will archive, such as Web sites and
possibly even blog content.
BBC, 29 June 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4633423.stm
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http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639
***
*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
As you may have just heard, London was just reported
to have "beaten out" Paris for the 2012 Olympic Games,
along with Madrid, Moscow and New York.
I listened to a dozen various reports and references
to politics and globalization were made, but no one,
not one single interviewee or reporter would come out
right up front and say the decision was in retaliation
for France upsetting the European Union apple cart by
voting against the proposed EU Constitution.
By the way, the oddsmakers favored Paris, but perhaps
didn't take the French vote against the EU seriously,
perhap along with French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
denigrating the food in England only yesterday.
Apparently the vote was extremely close, and we might
never find out just how much politics intervened.
*STRANGE WORDS OF THE WEEK
Cooper and Miller Not Off the Hook, Novak Not On It
Even though Time magazine handed over the papers in question
only a day after last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision, it
appears that the White House is still insisting that Matthew
Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of the New York Times still
go to jail, even though no such pressures have ever been put
upon Robert Novak, the originator of the story. Sources say
that this is simply because Novak is a partisan player, from
the side of the Conservatives.
DOUBLESPEAK OF THE WEEK
Last night ABC's Nightline special on North Korea said that
North Koreans only know about the U.S. and other countries
via what their government tells them, without mentioning at
all that most U.S. citizens know little or nothing about any
other countries, much less about any other U.S. states.
Most U.S. citizens still never move outside a 50 mile range
of their birthplace and have serious trouble with geography,
both inside and outside their own country.
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Matthew Cooper of Time and Judith Miller of The New York Times
will go to jail rather than divulge their sources, and Time and
the New York Times will stand behind them, and so will most of
the world press corps.
Wow! Was I wrong about THAT one!!!
It took only ONE DAY for TIME to cave in !!!
Why wasn't Mr. Novak, the columnist who intitially outed Mrs.
Valerie Plame ever given this threat of contempt charges?
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
The median worth of US black households is 10% of white households.
*
ALA figures for Library Internet Access
[If you think Internet access hasn't spread a lot in 10 years,
just think about these American Library Association figures]
99% 2005
95% 2002
21% 1994
Wireless Internet in Libraries
18% 2005
39% 2006 [predicted by FSU study]
*
50 million Americans live in various kinds "gated communites."
That means out of just a handful of people, one is most likely
living in such an "arranged community."
*
Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
"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.
*
POEM OF THE WEEK
The Demon of Poetry
poetry has become a demon
harrassment is its game
thoughts upon thoughts of
perfectly shaped fertile colorful rhymes
incessantly harrass my spirit
and then lose strength, meaning, and color
as soon as I grab my pen to pin them down
my thoughts, like caterpillars
my words, like butterflies
the mirror shows a wrinkled forehead
and dark, unrested eyes
Copyright 2005 by Simona Sumanaru and Michael S. Hart
Please send comments to: simona_s75 AT yahoo.com & hart AT pobox.com
***
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