The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002

Ironically, Project Gutenberg, which preserves the writings of others, doesn't have much written history itself. There are scraps of e-mails and guidelines, but many newsletters and other internal writings before 1996 have gone to the great bit-bucket in the sky.

The later half of the '90s marked a graceful blooming of Project Gutenberg's growth. Three related technical factors contributed: the explosion in home PCs brought standardization, which made it easy for non-techies to install scanners, which, in response to the new demand, became plentiful and cheap. And, of course, these years saw the rise in popularity of the Internet, which has always been PG's main channel of communication and distribution.

However, while PG's production expanded geometrically, at Moore's Law rates, there were barriers to participation. Most volunteers had to find an eligible book, scan or type it, and proof the resulting text all by themselves. This was and is a fairly significant amount of work: 40 painstaking hours would be a typical commitment for one book.

Beyond that, simply learning the mechanics of producing e-texts could be a serious challenge for newcomers. Nearly all internal PG communication, except for the Newsletter, was by private e-mail, and instructions had to be repeated many times to individual new volunteers, all of whom showed up with great good will, but most of whom vanished after a week or two.

Michael Hart was unstinting in his editing of incoming texts and handling questions by e-mail, but any one person has only so many hours.

The Directors of Production at the time -- Sue Asscher, Dianne Bean, John Bickers and David Price -- served as contact points for advice and help, made enormous efforts of production themselves, and tried to share the scanned texts among new volunteers for proofing. They made a huge contribution to building community in PG.

Pietro Di Miceli set up a web site for the project in 1996, and with the popularization of the Web (as opposed to the Internet), this became a beacon for readers and new volunteers.

All of these people reached out to willing volunteers, drew them in, helped them, encouraged them. The Project and all of the readers of the books, now and in the future, owe these people a great debt. Without them, Project Gutenberg could not have achieved what it has. But still, for the most part, each volunteer worked alone.

In 1999, I wrote, in response to an offer to volunteer:

I think I can best answer your offer, and many others like it, by giving an extended description of what actually happens in the making of PG texts, and why it's often not easy to get started.

There is no agenda, no master list of tasks ready to be given to volunteers. This is often the hardest thing to get across to new volunteers. I know I waited quite a while after volunteering for someone to give me a job to do before I realized it.

Exactly five steps are normally performed in the publishing of an e-text.

1. Someone, somewhere gets a public-domain copy of a text they want to contribute.

2. That volunteer confirms its PD status by sending TP&V to Michael, and getting copyright clearance.

3. Someone, usually the same volunteer, scans and corrects the text, or, if skilled in typing, types the book into an e-text.

4. Someone, often a different volunteer, second-proofs the e-text, removing the smaller errors.

5. The e-text is sent to Michael for posting.

There are three barriers which make it difficult for most people to contribute:

1. Getting a PD book.

2. People without scanners and typing skills have no way of turning a book into an e-text.

3. Even with a scanner, turning a book into an e-text is not easy or quick.

Since, generally, people who have a PD book don't just want to send it off to a stranger for scanning, the people who produce e-texts have to get over all three of these barriers. This is the bottleneck in production. It's relatively easy to get an e-text second-proofed; making it in the first place is the hardest part. You need to have a book, the means to turn it into an e-text and the time and will to do it.

After that comes second proofing. There are two problems here. One is that there may not be enough texts for all the people who want to second-proof; the other is that a lot of beginners just abandon texts given to them for second-proofing, which holds up the process and is discouraging for others. So a lot of volunteers do their own second-proofing or send their texts to established contacts with a track record of finishing the job, rather than making them available to newbies. The Directors of Production do serve as contact points, and at any given moment may have some texts for proofing, but they can only distribute the texts that have already been made.

With that explanation out of the way, I can better address your question of what you can do.

Second-proofing is an easy way to start, but material isn't just waiting for you. If you want to look for some, post your offer here and wait a week or so. If no takers by then, e-mail Michael and ask if there are any texts available; he may be able to refer you to a Director of Production who has something current. You may not get an e-text immediately, but you will get one. Of course, you can also look here for offers of e-texts ready to proof.

Your other option is to take on a book yourself. In your case, you already have a scanner, so you are equipped to become a producer. You need to find a PD book.

Getting PD books means finding and borrowing or buying them. You can do this through used bookshops, libraries or book sites on the Internet. I mention a few net sites in the FAQ in the link below. I get all my books through them, since they make it easy for me to find the books I want. Prices range from $5 up to (in my case) about $30.

The best advice I can offer here is: pick a book that you want to contribute, and a book you'll enjoy working with--you'll be living with it up close and personal for quite a while.

In March and April of 1999, Pietro created the PG Volunteers' WWWBoard and Greg Newby set up the mailing list gutvol-d, and, for the first time, volunteers who hadn't been introduced to each other by Michael or the Directors could meet online and communicate directly. A few FAQs and HOWTOs were written, covering the basics, the nitty-gritty of producing books. All of this activity made it much easier for people to get involved, and the Project experienced a new influx of interested volunteers. Improved OCR software was also a factor at this time: in response to the commoditization of scanners, there was rapid improvement in the quality of OCR, and better OCR made for easier production of e-texts. More work was shared out in co-operative proofing experiments.

It was in this new, expansive atmosphere, with ideas flooding in from enthusiasts newly energized by the project, that Charles Franks (Charlz) came up with the idea of a web site that would serve to distribute the work of proofing a book among many volunteers. But not only did he think of the concept; he went ahead and did it!

In April 2000, Charlz first requested comments on his idea in a post on the Volunteers' WWWBoard, and by the end of September, the first e-texts were queueing up on the production line.