December 19, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #27--December 19, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Book Preview--"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
by IonaV
In a few days, we'll have another Dickens' book to proof and format. It will be "A Christmas Carol" which is a favourite of many people especially during the holiday season. This one is the original 1843 edition with the original John Leech illustrations--yes, there is also an illustrated 1843 edition on DP-Int; however, this particular edition includes fascimiles of Dickens' handwritten manuscript. You'll get to see what the publishers and printers of the day had to work from--deletions, ink splotches, unclear words, etc.: no nice clear, computer generated printouts back then. :LOL:
Excerpt from the backcover of the 1971 Dover edition:
- The original manuscript of A Christmas Carol was preserved, and after many wanderings, it became part of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, where it has been exhibited to thousands. It has now been produced in a complete, clear fascimile that shows every nuance of Dickens' hand; faced on opposite pages to the manuscript is the printed text, as Dickens' finally approved it.
Editorial
One year of DPC Newsletter--Well, our newsletter has made it through 26 bi-weekly issues. I believe that our efforts have been a success and I hope that you feel the same way.
Please let us know what you think of our first year:
- do you like the logo? newsletter name? newsletter tagline?
- are there articles that didn't interest you or that you felt weren't necessary?
- are there other regular articles that you would like to see?
- would you like to see more regular contributors?
Server and site problems--Simple Simon, coachmike and company have continued to work hard the last couple of months. Lots of things have been fixed which is wonderful. I've been advised that there are 3 main server glitches left:
- non-creation of new project forums (now handled manually by PMs, PFs and Simple Simon)
- non-archiving of completed projects (now handled manually by coachmike)
- several (background) chron-jobs not running (not crucial)
All 3 are expected to be resolved within 7 to 10 days--oh, that means for year-end: wouldn't that be a lovely New Year's gift?
And thank you to everyone who has continued to send your enthusiastic support to Simple Simon, coachmike and their helpers. They need to know that we appreciate their hard work--without them, well, we wouldn't be here. Three cheers for all their hard work.
Calling P2 Proofers--P3 is getting low on English projects so, if you have some time over the holidays, I'm sure they would appreciate you doing some proofing. Thank you!!!
ÜberProjects--see the updates below.
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--Simple Simon has prepared a draft; you can find it here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Formatting_Guidelines. We have until January 15 to get our comments to him. You can post comments in this thread: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=744 or send him a PM. We'd especially like input from our foofers; both the experienced formatters and the newbies--who might spot some awkward wording.
Comments regarding bad links to FAQs and Guidelines--If any of these are still left, I know that coachmike will get to them. Don't forget to let Simple Simon know if there are still some around.
Check out the list of "possible future articles" at the end of the newsletter--are you interested in contributing or do you know of someone who could, or would like to, contribute, we'd love to have your article and/or thoughts. And you can do so anonymouslyAnd you can do so anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, 500 words or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Simon Says...
I think we've had a very good 2008, and coachmike and I would like to thank everyone for their participation, enthusiasm, good will and patience. We'll almost certainly hit 100 books posted by the end of December, quite a few members have qualified for P3 and F2, we've done far more pages than I would have believed possible (especially a few members, who are amazing!!), and most of all, we've proved clearly that DPC works. We're nowhere near as big as DP-INT, but there's always 2009!
And, as I hinted last issue, there are quite some ambitious plans on the books for next year. We'll launch our display site (note that the quotes have gone away, now I'm confident it will happen), we'll converge our code with DP-INT (so the last "glitches" and differences will disappear), and we have plans for attracting a large number of new members (not quite the "slash/dot" flood that some may remember, but we'll be challenged to deal with them).
Now, on to something new...
...LOTE Flotes my Bote
One of the activities I have always found fascinating about my membership in DP-INT is the opportunity to proof or format in LOTE. And I continue to do so now that DPC is operating. I just jump in and P1 in just about any language, even though my actual language skills are confined to some French and German--and some say English.
I'd like to open a multi-way conversation about LOTE at DPC. We have an opportunity to fulfil a special role within the DP community, because of both the "natural" Canadian multi-cultural background, with emigrants from everywhere, and because of our wonderful members from around the world. Last time I counted, we had members in 18 different time-zones!
So, I've always encouraged anyone who wanted to proof, format, CP or PM in any language--and provided active help to get projects started in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Turkish and now Swedish. I'd like to see these activities broaden even further to include projects in all the European languages, plus those from further afield, like the Middle Eastern languages, Cyrillic, and East and South Asian, too. Sometime in 2009, I hope that some First Nations projects will pop up, too.
This was the main reason why we adopted UTF-8 character encoding form the beginning--it has caused us a few additional problems, but brought many benefits, too. Not the least is that we are now regarded as "the experimenters" within the PG/DP community, as many people encourage us and provide help to support us. The latest is that DP-INT is going to step up and help with our planned "convergence of site code", scheduled to occur when our current hosting arrangement runs out in August, 2009. The end result of that will be full convergence of DPC code with DP-INT--there will no longer be any "differences" between the sites, except for the configuration and text on our site pages that make us uniquely DPC.
I'm going to start a new Team called "LOTE Flotes my Bote", with a discussion Forum to discuss all matters related to LOTE, and I hope you'll all participate in the forum at least. Let's get everything that you like, or otherwise, about the current approach to LOTE out on the table,and decide what to change.
Right at the beginning, I should say that nothing has changed my determination that eventually most of the Guidelines and FAQs will be available in more languages than just the original English. I'd really like the site to be bilingual in Canada's two official languages, at least the Guidelines and FAQs.
So I'm really talking about LOTEF (languages other than English and French).
What can we do to encourage members to participate in LOTE projects? Anyone can do P1 in any language--remember the main purpose of P1 is to eliminate OCR artifacts, blurs and smudges, bad pages...the activity is "match the scan" on a character-by character basis. So the language doesn't matter.
And similarly, I'd argue that anyone can do F1 in any language--now the emphasis is to make the file "look" like the scan, with bold, italic, smcaps, capitals, <tb>s, heading emphasis and so on--all of these are independent of language.
So now, if we can recruit or identify members with sufficient language skills to do P2 and F2, we're all set.
I've already done PPing in several other languages, both within DPC and on a "solo" basis--including French, Italian and German. So I know that it, too, can be accomplished.
The main purpose would be to help move existing LOTE projects through our rounds to posting, and to raise the number of such projects, while reducing the frusatration I know that LOTE PMs must have felt in times gone by.
Is anyone out there still listening?
Est-ce que n'importe qui dehors là écoute toujours?
Hört jemand heraus dort noch?
Chiunque fuori là ancora sta ascoltando?
¿Cualquier persona hacia fuera allí todavía está escuchando?
Är någon ute där stilla lyssnande?
Simple Simon
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines.--See comments in Editorial.
The proposed date for the revisions to come into effect is February 1.
Simon has also reiterated his promise that he will put together a combined Proofing/Foofing wiki page for those Formatters who like to have only one document open at a time but also want to be able to check on certain Proofing Guidelines.
Any requests for the next FAQ that needs to be handled?
ÜberProject #1: Chronicles of Canada
There continue to be lots of spaces for volunteers to PM, PP and even CP. To see the current status of the volumes, check out the ÜberProject wiki page for The Chronicles of Canada here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Chronicles_of_Canada.
- De2164 prepped a number of volumes and there are also several others that need prepping, so there's lots to do. CPers, PMs, PPers are all needed.
- We've arranged to get "mint condition" copies of the full set and so will be able to get good scans of all the maps and illustrations as well as picking up missing pages (if any). Thank you to hugger1935 for the use of the books.
- Volume 27 is in F1: Available with Volumes 8, 11 and 21 in P2: Available. Volumes 1, 3 and 18 are in Post-Processing. I know that there are a couple more being prepped.
- PP standards have been set and the books do not have anything extremely difficult at all. Check the Chronicles wiki page for the PP standards. Some of the standards for PPing have been updated.
- Volumes 13, 17 and 24 are being done at DP-Int since the authors of these volumes are out of DPC's copyright purview. They will be posted to PG-Int in due time. For those that are interested, the books are in the P3 waiting queue.
- Four volumes have been posted to PGC: Volume 2: The Mariner of St Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier, Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: a Chronicle of New World Feudalism, Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas and Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702, our first, is currently in P3: Available. Simple Simon is the PM and has decided that he will definitely PP this first volume, though he says that he will undoubtedly seek help from someone fluent in French to "look over his shoulder" on that side of things. He'll probably do the same for other languages as well.
Vol. 66: Illinois, Louisiana, Iroquois, Lower Canada, 1702-1712, our second, is in P1: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
A set of standards has been determined and added to the Project Comments. An ÜberProject wiki page for Jesuit Relations has been created. It includes the basic instructions for proofing and formatting.
ÜberProject #3: Governor General's Award Books
Warmheart has created an ÜberProject page for this uberproject. The page looks very good and has lots of links. You can see the details of what she has completed to date here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Governor_General%27s_Literary_Awards Check it out, you might find something interesting there....
There are only a couple of books that are available since many of the authors are still alive--ah, well, we'll get them eventually. :)
ÜberProject #4: Periodicals
Graham's Magazine is the first part of our ongoing ÜberProject #4: Periodicals. Simple Simon has the entire first year of volumes in hand and will release them as demand calls for them. There is one issue currently undergoing proofing in round P2. Two issues are in PP; another has been sent to PGC for posting and one issue: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 2 (1848) has been posted to PGC. Two more issues are being dropped into P1: Waiting this week.
Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
Our Young Folks, An illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls; Issued monthly; Publication Dates: January 1865 thru October 1873 when it merged with St. Nicholas.
Comments from Warmheart: Clearance for the first issue has been received and it's being prepped. I will try to get it uploaded before Christmas.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
Remember, these aren't the only periodicals that we can do--there are lots of others out there and some that are very different than "Graham's". Is there one that you'd like to do? Suggestions for favourite OLD periodicals are always welcome, but they must meet 3 criteria:
- published before 1860 to avoid the need for copyright checking
- good quality scans of a reasonable number of issues (preferably in whole volumes=a year)
- interesting content, out of the ordinary
ÜberProject #5: Works by Charles Dickens
Simple Simon and IonaV are Dickens fans. We know that there are many more out there. Although there are some of Dickens' works on the other PG sites, some of it is text only. We've got early editions of those books with illustrations as well as stories that have not yet been posted. As well, there are letters and essays and ...
- "A Christmas Carol" coming soon....
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in P2: Available.
- Two short stories for our anniversary blitz are posted to our wiki (http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Dickens_%22First_Anniversary%22_project): The Christmas Tree and What Christmas is as we get older. They will be posted to PG Canada with other Dickens' short stories.
More details and an ÜberProject wiki page to come.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 466 members. Welcome to all new members; I hope you find some projects that you will enjoy doing. Many of our members are also members of DP-Int/US and/or DP Europe--we welcome them and thank them for all their continued support and interest in DPC. (Numbers are accurate up to "press" time.)
| New | |
|---|---|
| December 2008 | 7 |
| November 2008 | 6 |
| October 2008 | 12 |
| Q3 2008 | 33 |
| Q2 2008 | 63 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 466 |
Milestones
We are going to use this space to "celebrate" notable milestones achieved by a member, team, group or project. For example, we'll report when a member completes 5,000 pages in any one round; then we'll let you know when they've done 10,000 pages and so on.
The "team" numbers are the cumulative totals for each round for each member of each team. So that's why, for the "15,000 pages" totals Team USA has the most P3 pages. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- uwe-joachim in F2
- Team USA in P3
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1 and P2
- Team German in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Daniel G in P1
- De2164 in F1
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F2
- Team Canada in F1
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
- Foofers' Corner in F1 and F2 NEW!!!
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Hey, P1 and P2 proofers, you'd better get going.... F1 has already reached their December page goal and P3 and F2 are well on the way to doing the same. We have 12 days to go....
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| December goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| *December to date | 1,321 | 1,277 | 1,436 | 3,290 | 1,405 |
| December to date % | 42.61 % | 41.19 % | 61.76 % | 106.13 % | 60.43 % |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PGC
At press time, we had 99 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 6 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 108 Silver Star projects in post processing and 96 Bronze Star projects which are currently undergoing proofing or formatting. For more details about these projects, please see the listings on the bottom of the DP Welcome page.
It seems that the counter for PG Canada posted books is working again.
User Team Talk
Have you checked out our user teams? To check out the teams or to join one go to: User Teams. The Team threads are located under Proofing Team Talk. Is there a team that you'd like to see? You can create a team from the link on the User Teams page--you might be surprised by who shows up to join you.
We now have 19 teams; but more are always welcome. Plans are in the works for another team: LOTE Flotes my Bote--see the Simon Says... article above for more details.
Possible Future Articles
This is YOUR newsletter: yes, there are forum posts and user team posts, but is there something that you want to tell the whole DPC community? You are allowed to brag here. You can also be anonymous if you choose ... we won't tell.
- Tips or Hints: for those people who do/did a lot of proofing and/or formatting on DP-Int/US &/or DP-Eur, do you have any tips or "rules" that you follow to help yourself while you proof or format? Even a re-wording of a guideline that helps you remember how to do something specific.
- Tell us why you joined DPC.
- Quotable Quotes: have you seen a thought-provoking quote that is relevant to the DP Community while you were doing your proofing that you just had to pass on?...
- The most interesting, outrageous, or strangest line you proofed: before it was proofed (if that was the outrageous or strange part) and what it was after proofing (please do not submit obscene language, it will not be published).
- New projects: PMs is there a series of books or books by a very prolific author that you'd like to do?--let us know so that we can help pass the word to the proofers so they'll be there to jump in and work on them.
- Kudos, Bouquets & Compliments: are there any DPers that you would like to give special thanks and/or recognition to: a mentor who gave you lots of guidance, a PPer that made your project into a very wonderful looking book for posting to PG, a CPer or image/text preparer who went the extra little bit to provide you with clean scans, well OCR'd text, or good illustrations for your project, another DPer who made you feel really welcome or provided you with some good advice or....
- "Guest articles" by anyone and everyone who wishes to....
