Forum: Lost Stories

Oh OK sorry

I am not sure what's OK to say and what's not OK to say here

Lazeez does not want us posting links to competing story sites. Many will avoid even naming them without links, but my understanding is that the rule does not go that far.

Lazeez will delete comments linking to competing sites when he finds them.

He has deleted entire threads/topics when it was clear that the OP was asking about stories the OP knew were not on SOL or one of it's sister sites.

He has deleted entire threads/topics when it was clear that the OP was asking about stories the OP knew were not on SOL or one of it's sister sites.

But he seems to tolerate threads in which the OP knows they read it in dead-tree format before the web existed.

But he seems to tolerate threads in which the OP knows they read it in dead-tree format before the web existed.

The issue is competing story web sites. Old dead-tree books aren't on competing story web sites.

Project Gutenberg ?

Ian

Yes and no. Yes it is his name. No, it is modern, well set up in the 70s. A site with over 50000 ebooks, in the public domain.

Ian

No, it is modern, well set up in the 70s

The 70s would be before the internet existed. No, Project Gutenberg is not that old.

The 70s would be before the internet existed. No, Project Gutenberg is not that old.

Project Gutenberg etext 1 is The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, by Thomas Jefferson
it was produced in 1971

Project Gutenberg etext 1 is The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, by Thomas Jefferson
it was produced in 1971

That is true, but as I read their history documents, that actually predates the formation of Project Gutenberg.

https://www.gutenberg.org/about/background/50years.html

Move forward in time to 1971, when Michael Hart invented the eBook. Like Gutenberg's printing press, Hart's innovation followed decades of prior work. To name a few, this includes Vannevar Bush's "Memex" (1930s, based on microfiche), Bob Brown's "The Readies" (1930s), Brown University's "FRESS" (1960s), Ted Nelson's Xanadu (1960s), and many others.

What Michael envisioned in 1971 was eBooks for reading enjoyment. This was the innovation. His focus was not on the mechanics of presentation or analysis, nor was it on outcomes like literary analysis or hermeneutics. The eBook as Michael envisioned it would have a similar purpose to the printed book: enjoyable to read, and a source of enlightenment, education, and entertainment. It would all be free, for unlimited reuse and without limitation of purpose.

For the two decades from 1971-1991, Hart evangelized the idea of eBooks, and worked on the first 100 or so titles. These included historical documents - famously starting with the US Declaration of Independence. Also reference works, literary works, a few donated contemporary works, mathematical constants, and more. Subsequent years saw issuance of short videos and longer movies, graphical collections, sheet music, audio files, and eBooks in dozens of languages and formats.

Like the movable type printing press, the modern digital computer was a machine usable for many different purposes: all types of content, suitable for a wide range of interests. This inspired the vision and genius of Michael Hart.

Project Gutenberg evolved from a concept to become an organization. Volunteers would identity printed books to digitize, and create an eBook for Project Gutenberg to publish and redistribute.

The way I read this, the Project Gutenberg organization (and its web site) were created sometime between 1991 and 2000.

ARPANET was certainly around in the 70s, and that was (arguably) when Project Gutenberg started. The Internet really started in the 80s.

Ian

ETA Wikipedia says

Michael S. Hart began Project Gutenberg in 1971 with the digitization of the United States Declaration of Independence

ETA Wikipedia says

Information on the Project Gutenberg's own web site(which I linked to) says differently. I will take what they say themselves over what's on Wikipedia.

The project got its start on July 4, 1971, when Michael Hart, a student at the University of Illinois, began typing the U.S. Declaration of Independence into the school's computer system for distribution free of charge.

Or

Project Gutenberg, in full Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, a nonprofit organization (since 2000)

Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Project-Gutenberg)

The project got its start on July 4, 1971, when Michael Hart, a student at the University of Illinois, began typing the U.S. Declaration of Independence into the school's computer system for distribution free of char

It was a concept that Michael Hart had. It didn't become an actual organization until much later.

See what I quoted above, Which is from the Project Gutenberg website. There is no source you can post that I would consider more authoritative than what's on the Project Gutenberg web site itself.

Project Gutenberg is two things; a digital archive and a organization.
What you repeatedly call a concept, is the digital archive that was started in 1971, and is later organized under the name Project Gutenberg.

What you repeatedly call a concept,

I didn't call it a concept. That exact wording comes from an article posted on the Project Gutenberg web site which I linked to above.

Project Gutenberg evolved from a concept to become an organization.

That is an exact quote from an article posted on the Project Gutenberg Web site under their About Link.

https://www.gutenberg.org/about/background/50years.html

The 70s would be before the internet existed.

Actually, the internet has been around since the 1960s.

Granted, the early internet wasn't available to the average person and you're correct that Project Gutenberg wasn't quite that early, but the internet as a thing has been around a LOT longer than the modern web.

Granted, the early internet wasn't available to the average person and you're correct that Project Gutenberg wasn't quite that early, but the internet as a thing has been around a LOT longer than the modern web.

Back that far there was Arpanet. And while the internet is an evolution of Arpanet, I am not going to agree that they are the same thing.

The name is a reference to "the old, dead, German dude that invented the printing press", but Project Gutenberg is an on-line library/database of public domain(free of copyright) books that they have converted to e-books.

Thanks.