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Tuesday, January 13, 2004
A Useful Hobby?
I've been a fan of Project Gutenberg for years, but I've never known how I could contribute my time and efforts without spending a bundle on a professional scanner, top-of-the-line OCR software, and worthwhile books on which the copyright had expired. Not that they do anymore.
Anyway, somewhere in my net travels, I stumbled across Distributed Proofing. It's an outgrowth of Gutenberg that leverages the strength of the willing masses to take the (sometimes ugly) OCR scans and turn them into readable e-texts.
Proofing the pages is an interesting experience. At any moment, there are a variety of projects from which to choose. Over the past few days, I've proofed some "non-fiction" about a couple of young men adventuring through the Everglades (complete with encountering Seminole "squaws" and "pickaninnies"), pages from The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe, elementary comparisons of Socialism and Capitalism (from, I think, a slightly pro-Socialist angle), a few pages of assorted religious texts, and memoirs of a Victorian-era author and poet who was so full of himself he might just be related (on my Dad's side). Even within one book, there is no guarantee the pages to be proofed will be delivered sequentially, which delivers an almost surreal quality.
Stop by and take a look. Check my stats. Sign in and edit a couple of pages. I've only been going for a little while now, but when I "waste" an hour there, I feel like I accomplished something. I never got that from the java games at Popcap.
Posted 01/13/2004 16:40 by Fritz | Comments (2) | TrackBack