October 2011 Newsletter: Loss of our Founder

by Greg Newby on October 6, 2011
PG News

Project Gutenberg

As many people are aware, Project Gutenberg’s founder passed away on September 6.  Information about the life and legacy of Michael Hart is online here: www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart

Thanks to the many fans, friends, and eBook enthusiasts who shared in our sadness of this sudden loss.  Michael will be remembered fondly, and there is no doubt that his leadership in digitization and free distribution of literature has had a lasting impact.  Part of that legacy is the ongoing activity of Project Gutenberg, which continues unabated.

I do intend to maintain this monthly newsletter, and as always the newsletter welcomes contributions of all types.

Greg Newby
[click to read full article…]

{ 1 comment }

Michael Hart 1947-2011

by Mike Cook on September 8, 2011
PG News

Michael Hart

Two days ago, on the 6th September 2011, Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, was found dead in his home in Urbana, Illinois, aged just 64.

Michael invented the eBook (electronic book) in 1971 when he typed the U.S. Declaration of Independence into the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois in celebration of the American Bicentennial. Just six out of the then 100 users on the network downloaded the file, but it was from these humble beginnings that Michael founded Project Gutenberg, which is now recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. [click to read full article…]

{ 7 comments }

eBooks: 2011 – The ebook in ten points

July 27, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2011 – The ebook in ten points

These ten quotes are excerpts from email interviews. Their authors are Michael Hart, John Mark Ockerbloom, Robert Beard, Jean-Paul, Nicolas Pewny, Marc Autret, Pierre Schweitzer, Denis Zwirn, Catherine Domain and Henk Slettenhaar. August 1998 “We consider etext to be a new medium, with no real relationship to paper, other than presenting the same material, but [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2010 – A UNESCO atlas for endangered languages

July 26, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2010 – A UNESCO atlas for endangered languages

In 2010, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched a free Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. The online edition is a complement of the print edition (3rd edition, 2010), edited by Christopher Moseley, and available in English, French and Spanish, with previous editions in 1996 and 2001. 2,473 languages were [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2009 – 6,909 living languages in the Ethnologue

July 25, 2011
eBooks: 2009 - 6,909 living languages in the Ethnologue

6,909 living languages were cataloged in the 16th edition (2009) of “The Ethnologue: Languages of the World”, an encyclopedic reference work freely available on the web since 1996, with a print book for sale. As stated by Barbara Grimes, its editor from 1971 to 2000, the Ethnologue is “a catalog of the languages of the [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2001 – Broadband became the norm

July 24, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2001 – Broadband became the norm

Henk Slettenhaar has extensive knowledge of communication technology, with a long career in Geneva, Switzerland, and California. Ten years after getting a broadband connection at home, he reads ebooks on a Kindle or an iPad. Henk joined CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva  in 1958 to work with the first digital computer. He was [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2000 – Cotres.net, works of digital literature

July 23, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2000 – Cotres.net, works of digital literature

A writer and musician, Jean-Paul has offered beautiful works of digital literature, while searching how hyperlinks could expand his writing towards new directions. In October 1998, Jean-Paul switched from being a print author to being an hypermedia author, and created cotres.net (“cotres” could be translated by “cutters” in English) as a website “telling stories in [...]

Read the full article →

Project Gutenberg 40th Year Special Projects

July 22, 2011
Thumbnail image for Project Gutenberg 40th Year Special Projects

We have several special projects we will be starting on or around July 4, and if you have a project you like to work on, why not send us a note and see if we can get a team of volunteers to help. Our newest project is to solicit suggestions where this project should be [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2000 – Experiments by best-selling authors

July 22, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2000 – Experiments by best-selling authors

In 2000, Stephen King was the first best-selling author to launch digital experiments, followed by Frederick Forsyth and Arturo Pérez-Reverte in Europe and many other authors then, for example Paolo Coehlo in Brazil. Stephen King As a first step, Stephen King distributed in March 2000 his short story “Riding the Bullet” as an electronic file, [...]

Read the full article →

eBooks: 2000 – The web portal yourDictionary

July 21, 2011
Thumbnail image for eBooks: 2000 – The web portal yourDictionary

Five years before co-founding yourDictionary.com in February 2000, as the portal for all languages without any exception, Robert Beard created the website A Web of Online Dictionaries (WOD) in 1995. Robert Beard was a language teacher at Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. In September 1998, his website provided an index of 800 online dictionaries in [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries