En juillet 1971, Michael Hart crée le Projet Gutenberg pour diffuser gratuitement sous forme électronique les oeuvres littéraires du domaine public. Un projet longtemps considéré par ses détracteurs comme impossible à grande échelle. Site pionnier à tous égards, le Projet Gutenberg est à la fois le premier site d’information sur un réseau encore embryonnaire et la première bibliothèque numérique. Les livres sont numérisés en mode texte (TXT) en utilisant le code ASCII (American standard code for information interchange). Lorsque l’utilisation du web se généralise, au milieu des années 1990, le projet trouve un second souffle et un rayonnement international. Les collections atteignent 1.000 livres en août 1997, 2.000 livres en mai 1999, 3.000 livres en décembre 2000, 4.000 livres en octobre 2001, 5.000 livres en avril 2002, 10.000 livres en octobre 2003, 15.000 livres en janvier 2005, 20.000 livres en décembre 2006 et 25.000 livres en avril 2008, dans 55 langues, avec 340 nouveaux livres par mois, 340 sites miroirs dans de nombreux pays, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de téléchargements par jour et des milliers de volontaires de par le monde. En octobre 2001, la principale source des livres devient Distributed Proofreaders, mis sur pied par Charles Franks pour gérer la correction partagée entre volontaires. D’abord essentiellement anglophones, le Projet Gutenberg s’internationalise et les collections deviennent multilingues. Le Projet Gutenberg Europe est lancé en janvier 2004 par le Projet Rastko, basé à Belgrade, en Serbie. Suivent le Project Gutenberg Canada et bien d’autres.
ECTACO are probably better know for their electronic hand held translators, but now they gone and released their very own reader; the jetBook eBook Reader.
The jetBook does not use an E-Ink screen, however, this does give it an advantage over all the other eBook readers that are currently out there; a crisp and very white screen! One of the issues people have with the current E-Ink (and VixPlex) standard is that the page contrast is not high enough – usually with E-Ink screens you have a light gray background displaying dark gray text, making low light reading a challenge.
Well, if you think this will be an issue then perhaps you would be better suited to a jetBook. These use a reflective monochrome LCD screen so that the background is nice and white, allowing the text to be read much easier.
[The jetBook has] an easy to scan high-resolution 5-inch display and a viewing angle close to 180°, it is fully customizable. Even readers who have difficulty seeing print books will benefit from its adjustable text size and font face. And weighing in at only 7.5 ounces, this handy device fits perfectly into the palm of your hand.
They go on to say that this “revolutionary display reflects light without the need for backlighting”, which according to reviews gives a similar reading experience to an E-Ink screen.
For me however, the most impressive feature of the jetBook is its ability to search and cross-reference the text using bookmarks making it a great choice for dictionaries – I’m not sure if this means you can do a word lookup from within a book. I’ll try to find out and post an update.
In Australia it is now 1st August 2008 and Project Gutenberg Australia is celebrating its seventh birthday!
In August 2001 Project Gutenberg Australia posted their first book online, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell – they now have over 1600 titles available for download. Project Gutenbereg (U.S.) only posted their 1,600th title in June 1998 – that’s 20 years longer that it has taken PGA!
Introducción
Cronología
1968: ASCII
1971: Proyecto Gutenberg
1974: Internet
1990: Web
1991: Unicode
1993: Online Books Page
1993: PDF
1994: Consorcio W3C
1995: Amazon.com
1996: Internet Archive
1996: Palm Pilot
1997: Open eBook
1999: Bibliotecarios digitales
1999: Web multilingüe
2000: Mobipocket
2000: Public Library of Science
2000: Distributed Proofreaders
2000: Biblia de Gutenberg
2001: Wikipedia
2003: MIT OpenCourseWare
2004: Proyecto Gutenberg Europa
2005: Google Print / Book Search
2005: Open Content Alliance
2006: Microsoft Live Search Books
2006: WorldCat
2007: Citizendium
2007: Encyclopedia of Life
INTRODUCCIÓN
Somos muchos los que soñamos con una biblioteca digital universal de libre acceso – es decir accesible desde cualquier navegadora y en cualquier momento. Gracias al Proyecto Gutenberg, al Internet Archive y a otros proyectos, el sueño empieza a hacerse realidad, al menos para los libros del dominio público.
Este proceso empezó hace tiempo gracias a los esfuerzos de algunos precursores. El “libro para todos” nació con el Proyecto Gutenberg, creado por Michael Hart en julio de 1971. El objetivo era utilizar las “nuevas tecnologías” para difundir gratuitamente bajo forma electrónica las obras literarias que pertenecían al dominio público.
Great news for all us UK based eBook lovers. Sony are finally releasing their Reader Digital Book (PRS-505) to the UK market!
Sony have partnered with the UK book store Waterstones, who will start selling the Reader from 3rd September 2008 for £199 – available for Pre-Order (see below). This costs a little more than the U.S. version, which sells for $299 (approx. £150). Now we are seeing eBook readers entering the high street let’s hope the prices will start tumbling.
UPDATE: Stanza is no longer maintained so I’d recommend you try out Bluefire Reader. Checkout my iPhone review or iPad review over on epubBooks for some more information on reading EPUB books on the iPhone with Blurefire and other apps.
If you are looking for a free eBook reader for your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch then you might want to try the new Stanza reader from Lexcycle.
Project Gutenberg and partner sponsors encourage readers to create the “personal library” of their choice in a “personal computer.” Most of the fair’s electronic books are free of charge, and an additional 160,000 or more have coupon or discount purchases available during the month.
All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:
eBooks in over 100 Different Languages!
eBooks designed for cell phones!
eBooks designed for Adobe readers!
eBooks designed for plain text readers!
eBooks out loud in theatrical performances!
eBooks that your computer can read aloud to you!
eBooks that can be easily quoted in school papers!
160,000 eBooks in brand new commercial editions!!!
/The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter, Jul. 04, 2008/
e-Books Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971
A Million Plus Books Free for the Taking!
July 4 2008
The Third Annual World eBook Fair Starts July 4th.
"Own Your Own Library" is the theme of this year's World eBook Fair.
Starting July 4th you will be able to do just that in an unprecedented opportunity to download books in the widest variety ever available.
Visit www.worldebookfair.org to get started.
Project Gutenberg and partner sponsors encourage readers to create the "personal library" of their choice in a "personal computer." Most of the fair's electronic books are free of charge, and an additional 160,000 or more have coupon or discount purchases available during the month.
All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:
eBooks in over 100 Different Languages!
eBooks designed for cell phones!
eBooks designed for Adobe readers!
eBooks designed for plain text readers!
eBooks out loud in theatrical performances!
eBooks that your computer can read aloud to you!
eBooks that can be easily quoted in school papers!
160,000 eBooks in brand new commercial editions!!!
Music, movies, etc. are also included. . . .
Highlights of the World eBook Fair
Just two years ago The First World eBook Fair came on the scene with about 1/3 million books, doubled to 2/3 million in 2007, and now over one million.
Created by contributions from 100+ eLibraries from around the world, here are the largest collections
As of press date of midnight Central Daylight Time July 1, 2008 these were the approximate numbers:
~100,000+ from Project Gutenberg
~500,000+ from The World Public Library
~450,000 from The Internet Archive
~160,000 from eBooks About Everything
----------
~1,210,000+ Grand Total as of July 1, 2008
The Internet Archive will add about 1,000 books on each business day, along with various additions by the other contributors during World eBook Fair.
Thus the final grand total may be over 1,230,000
Contact information:
If you have any questions, or seek further materials, an interview or would like to confirm the schedule or contents please feel free to contact any of the following:
Michael S. Hart
Founder, Project Gutenberg
405 W. Elm, Urbana, IL 61801
hart@pglaf.org
hart@pobox.com
US Phone 217-344-6623
Cellphone 808-295-0615
Gregory B. Newby
CEO, Project Gutenberg
gbnewby@pglaf.org
US Phone 907-450-8663
http://www.gutenberg.org
John Guagliardo
Founder, World Public Library
Honolulu, Hawaii
john@gutenberg.cc
US Phone 808-292-2068
http://www.worldpubliclibrary.org
Catherine Hodge
eBooks About Everything
info@ebooksabouteverything.com
US Phone 760-327-5100
http://ebooksabouteverything.com
The Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/texts
**********************************************_
gmonthly mailing list
gmonthly@lists.pglaf.org
http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gmonthly
In July 1971, Michael Hart created Project Gutenberg with the goal of making available for free, and electronically, literary works belonging to public domain. A pioneer site in a number of ways, Project Gutenberg was the first information provider on the internet and is the oldest digital library. When the internet became popular, in the mid-1990s, the project got a boost and an international dimension. The number of electronic books rose from 1,000 (in August 1997) to 5,000 (in April 2002), 10,000 (in October 2003), 15,000 (in January 2005), 20,000 (in December 2006) and 25,000 (in April 2008), with a current production rate of around 340 new books each month. With 55 languages and 40 mirror sites around the world, books are being downloaded by the tens of thousands every day.
As of May 21, 2008: “Original Project Gutenberg eBook” site totals have reached 28,000, details below.
Please do not forget the 1600+ from PG of Australia, the ~500 from PG Europe, and the ~100 from PG Canada, with a detailed list included below. Not to mention the sites: Gutenberg.cc with 75,000+ eBooks, and Project Runeberg with eBooks in the Scandinavian languages.
Please note: the figures presented here are usually the more conservative figures people have presented, but the date of our eBook #25,000 was said to have been slightly earlier than reported. Personally, I would prefer to be a little cautious about reporting the numbers of eBooks, but if anyone would like to help us with the accounting, that would be GRRRREAT!!!
ECTACO are probably better know for their electronic hand held translators, but now they gone and released their very own reader; 
Great news for all us UK based eBook lovers. Sony are finally releasing their Reader Digital Book (PRS-505) to the UK market!
A Million Plus Books Free for the Taking!