Book People Archive

Re: OCA and Foreign Languages

At 12:33 PM -0700 10/28/07, Michael Hart wrote:
>>
>> So, I'd bet that if Project Gutenberg were a translation
>> project, it would stand at less than 1,000 works complete at
>> this point in time, given the additional time required, and the
>> fact that fewer qualified people exist.
>
>It's always a great motivation to hear we do the impossible.
>
>You sound just like the people who told me Project Gutenberg
>could never do 10,000 eBooks, which I always knew we would.
>
>Of course, we have 100,000 now, not counting the one month
>this coming year we will join with others to get 1,000,000
>available free online on our 37th anniversary.
>
>I Love Doing The Impossible!
>

I think you are misreading my intentions.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of you and project Gutenberg. You did do what
many people thought was impossible. I was NOT one of them. When I first
came across project Gutenberg, the goal was (if I remember correctly), 1000
downloads each of 1000 ebooks (totalling 1,000,000 ebooks) by 2000? (or was
it 1990 something?). That goal seems fairly simple now.

I'm NOT saying that a translation project is impossible. Far from it. And I
think that even if it takes 20 years to reach just 1,000 books translated,
its probably worth it. That gives 1,000 works that (we assume) would not
have been translated otherwise, and the world is a better place as a result.

My purpose in what I wrote was merely to point out that a translation
project is at least 10 times more difficult (and possibly as much as 100
times more difficult) than the various digitization projects. Knowing these
facts can help you plan better.

AND, just so that you know that I'm not blowing smoke, I hereby publicly
volunteer my own expertise, especially in planning such a venture. If you
want, I'll pass on to you some thoughts (off list) as to how a project like
this needs to be structured to avoid re-translation of works that have
already been translated.

Believe me, my comments, to the degree that they are criticism, are meant
as constructive criticism -- comments that should help make books more
available worldwide.

Kent