October 2011: Loss of our Founder

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 […]

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PG Monthly Newsletter (2011-10-05)

The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter–Oct. 05, 2011 Greetings from Project Gutenberg! This is the newsletter for October, 2011. ** Contents ** Loss of our Founder, and Inventor of eBooks New Mirroring Service Get Involved New Releases for September 2011 ** Loss of our Founder, and Inventor of eBooks ** As many people are aware, Project […]

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Michael Hart 1947-2011

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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 […]

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eBooks: 2011 – The ebook in ten points

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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 […]

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eBooks: 2010 – A UNESCO atlas for endangered languages

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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 […]

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

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 […]

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eBooks: 2001 – Broadband became the norm

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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Project Gutenberg 40th Year Special Projects

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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 […]

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eBooks: 2000 – Experiments by best-selling authors

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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, […]

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PG Monthly Newsletter (2011-07-21)

The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter–Jul. 21, 2011 eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971 If you find errors please send them to errors at pglaf.org The 40th Anniversary of PG eBooks is July 4, 2011!!!!!! Just about TWO WEEKS The World eBook Fair will end. Be sure to download your choices from the […]

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