The following is from slashdot.org. The numbered links are apparently images. Despite what others say on this list, it’s nice to see PG used in education like this.
ftblguy writes “MIT’s Open CourseWare program provides a great example of how the open source movement is impacting education. The Online Education Database also lists Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, Linux, Firefox, and Google (?) as some of the other open source in education success stories. Open source and open access resources have changed how colleges, organizations, instructors, and prospective students use software, operating systems, and online documents for educational purposes. Each success story has served as a springboard to create more open source successes.”
David Masson, who has died aged 91, will be most remembered for his collection of brilliant and influential science-fiction short stories, The Caltraps of Time (1968). They had been first published individually in the British SF magazine New Worlds, which during the 1960s had a radical policy of rethinking science fiction’s standard generic material. This was the period of the SF “new wave”, when many new and youthful writers were breaking into print. Masson was certainly new to SF readers, but when his first story appeared he was nearly 50.
Captain America, a Marvel Entertainment superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the sentinel of liberty’s fight for right, which began in 1941.
The last episode in Captain America’s life comes after the events of “Civil War,” a seven-issue mini-series that has affected nearly the entire line of Marvel’s library of titles. In “Civil War,” the government began requiring superheroes to register their services, and it outlawed vigilantism after supervillains and superheroes fought during a reality show, accidentally killing hundreds of civilians. The public likened the heroes to weapons of mass destruction that must be controlled.
In the first 50 years of The Gutenberg Press more books were created than in all previous history. Will this also be true of Project Gutenberg’s invention of a modern Gutenberg Press via the electronic book?
Starting With The Present
Let’s just consider the 100,000 eBooks available freely from Project Gutenberg, but keep in mind that there were probably a million free eBooks available on the Internet in 2006. Let’s also just consider that the average one of these books might be downloaded by some 1%-2% of the world population.
1.5% of the world population is about 100 million people.
100,000 x 100,000,000 = 10 Trillion = 10,000,000,000,000
Are there 10 trillion books in the world???
This is pretty much the current state of things, but later I plan to mention how things will change by 2021, when Project Gutenberg turns 50 years old.
And A Nod To The Past, And The Gutenberg Press
When Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press in ~1450 certainly no one was thinking that by 1500 there would be an explosion of printing that would create more books than ever had existed in all previous history.