On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, James Linden wrote:
We have some needs to address in the near (and/or immediate) future:
1) Non Profit Organization. At least one lawyer to help setup the PG of Canada non-profit organization. Pro-bono work is pretty much our only option right now. Coming up with the funds to register the non-profit, etc is going to be difficult enough.
How much will this cost?
Hard to know until they (Canadian Gov.) actually tell us, but based on fee tables, etc, it will be a couple hundred Canadian dollars. Information on the CanGov sites is annoyingly hard to read, so I could be inaccurate. I'll make a few phone calls and see if I can come up with an accurate number today.
2) Lawyer(s). We need them for continuing work as copyright experts and for copyright clearance questions. Again, pro-bono.
We have had amazing luck with heads of law libraries at various universities.
Naturally, we pretty much need a Canadian lawyer. Do you know any heads of law libraries in Canada?
3) Logo. Naturally, we'll probably want to include the standard maple leaf. :-) The only idea I've had is to somehow incorporate the printing press (from PG's logo), a maple leaf, and something to represent "the future", maybe a gear (aka "cog"), or something. We'll want something that will look good online, on print matter (posters, letterhead, bookmarks, business cards, etc), and on CDs and DVDs.
You could add the maple leaf to the printing press logo in several ways:
1. Put it on the CD. . .this would be at a stiff angle, and might require adding a CD that is out of the press.
2. Put it on the upper frame of the printing press.
3. Put it on the lower frame.
4. Superimpose the entire press on an even larger maple leaf.
5. Superimpose the text of the business cards on a maple leaf.
All good ideas. I'll be sure to mention them if/when a graphically oriented volunteer shows themselves. :-)
4) Website. We should get a good website up and running as soon as
possible. I don't
have the time to write a custom CMS, so I'm thinking we should use something like PHP-Nuke or Nucleus, or one of the other PHP-based solutions. If there is another PHP programmer lurking who is interested in writing something custom, speak up, eh?
We might be able to find some people to send you templates to work up from.
[Just ask, and I'll see what I can do]
Who/where would you recommend asking?
5) Organizational Stucture. I'm keenly interested in starting with a proper
organizational structure
for PG of Canada. We've seen the ruckus on gutvol-d, etc -- let's avoid that, eh?
I've seen all too many efforts never get started because they spent so much energy on how to get started, how to control, etc., before there was anything there to be controlled. . . .
We are already started, and each day I try to do at least one task related to PG Canada. :-)
6) Volunteers. Naturally, PG of Canada will stand on the shoulders of volunteers. If you have anything to contribute, post your list of "I'd like to..." to the list. Please include some sort of personal intro if you do -- I'd like to get to know everyone, and I'm sure everyone would like to get to know you too. If I need to post an intro to myself, say so, but as I've been pretty outspoken on the PG lists, I'm thinking it's probably not needed. :-p
I'm always happy to help, and to be listed as an anonymous volunteer, which is the way I signed most of my work for Project Gutenberg.
I seriously dislike anonymous, but if that's how you want it...
Incidentally, the name is "Project Gutenberg of Canada", aka "PG Canada" or "PG of Canada" -- not "PGCA" :-)
I've found that people usually choose the shortest alternative. . . .
Too bad -- they can pay the trademark infringement fines for using PGCA then. I'm still waiting on the actual search results from the IP office up here, but there was at least one "hit" for "PGCA" in the DB, but we don't currently know if the trademark was granted, and therefore in effect, or not. Regards, James Linden Founder, Project Gutenberg of Canada jlinden@projectgutenberg.ca http://www.projectgutenberg.ca/