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Distributed Proofreaders Celebrates Landmark Achievement 10,000 Written Works of Literature and History Preserved
by Thierry Alberto
March 9, 2007
Distributed Proofreaders (http://www.pgdp.net) today commemorated their digital conversion of 10,000 written works with the release of an exemplary collection of what makes the public domain worth preserving and defending.
Distributed Proofreaders, a wholly volunteer organization, was established in 2000 for the purpose of producing quality transcriptions of machine-readable texts from public domain sources. Once a unique title has been completed the result is made freely available in widely used text and graphic formats via the Internet. The complete library of "DP texts" is accessible from file servers throughout the world under the governance of Project Gutenberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org ); founding ancestor of online archives.
Distributed Proofreaders, as its name implies, utilizes the dynamic power of labor distribution to expedite the otherwise insurmountable task of transcribing the vast stock of the literary public domain. Being a true Internet era assembly model, DP never sleeps. Hundreds of books progress each day towards awaiting readers as thousands of members from around the world devote time to a variety of production tasks. In less than seven years, more than two and a half million unique pages of content have completed the distributed proofreading process. Every single page is treated individually as each text progresses through multiple procedures of correction and refinement.
A published work enters the Distributed Proofreaders' system as a digital image of the original document. Optical character recognition software is first utilized to produce base text files from each page of the source work. At each stage of proofing, volunteers compare the most recent version of the text file against the photographic image of the original page. After passing through several "rounds" of improvement and cross-checking the individual pages are then ready to be reconstituted as a single text file. This later stage is comparable to the final editing of a motion picture. Before any project can be considered complete, however, it must pass through still another rigorous set of manual and automated verification checks. It is a complex and labor intensive process, making the Internet safe for reading, but that goal is 10,000 titles closer to being realized today, thanks to the dedication of the diverse community of Distributed Proofreaders.
One secret to the continued success and prosperity of Distributed Proofreaders is the project's openness to new members. This policy of unconditional welcome extends beyond the mere swelling of ranks as the very structure of DP supports immediate and worthwhile participation. New and senior volunteers alike can login to the Distributed Proofreaders' production site at http://www.pgdp.net and make a tangible contribution by working on just a single page in a day or a week. The majority of members devote themselves to more than a page a day, particularly once they've tasted the satisfaction of meaningful accomplishment, but no volunteer is ever obligated to participate more than their desire or means. As every single page counts towards a finished text, every member's contribution makes a difference.
The original Distributed Proofreaders works solely upon books that are out of copyright in the United States; yet the project has always remained "international" in spirit. Not all, but many, of the 10,000 titles completed by DP are within the public domain throughout the world. The secure transmission of this historical legacy into the digital age is a primary motivation for the thousands of volunteers that comprise this global tribe of proofreaders; book hunters; page scanners and dedicated preservationists. Hailing from many countries and speaking a wide variety of native languages; what DP volunteers share in common is a love for the written word and a devotion to assure that others, who share that adoration, may receive their rightful literary heritage.
True to its international nature, Distributed Proofreaders, while respecting U.S. copyright laws, does not limit itself to preserving solely English language content. Nearly 15% of completed titles, to date, represent over 20 languages beyond English. A look to DPs 10,000th title set reveals the diversity of world cultural content in the public domain. Among this present commemoration collection are a French translation of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice'; the chronicle of Portuguese explorer Serpa Pinto's African expeditions; a pair of illustrated children stories from Germany; the eighteenth century: Species Plantarum, a Latin botanical reference work and a translation of a 17th century Guatemalan Maya manuscript.
The fifteen diverse works which frame Distributed Proofreaders' 10,000th title, culminating in 10,010 completed, were coordinated to be released as a set. It has become a tradition at DP to celebrate the completion of each 1,000 titles. For previous milestones a title was selected often to highlight an achievement such as the completion of the daunting 'Anatomy of Melancholy or an ongoing initiative like the dedicated effort invested in preserving decades worth of 19th century periodicals. With the evident significance of the 10,000th milestone a different manner of celebration seemed warranted. The fifteen titles released today are not a cheer towards the past accomplishments of Distributed Proofreaders, nor are they pat on the back for deeds fulfilled on this day. What these titles so clearly represent, of their own merits, is the future and what awaits within the world's public domain yet to be rescued from obscurity and re-presented to an audience hungry to rediscover the cultural treasures of previous ages.
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