Distributed Proofreaders Canada
From DPCanadaWiki
Contents |
About This Site
Distributed Proofreaders Canada was founded in 2007 by Michael Shepard and David Jones to support the digitization of Public Domain books. Originally conceived to assist Project Gutenberg (PG), Distributed Proofreaders (DP-INT) is now the main source of PG e-books. We anticipate that DP Canada will become the main provider of e-books to PG Canada. All our proofreaders, managers, developers and so on are volunteers.
Site Concept
The Distributed Proofreaders Canada site provides a web-based method of easing the proofreading work associated with the digitization of Public Domain books into Project Gutenberg Canada e-books. By breaking the work into individual pages many proofreaders can be working on the same book at the same time. This significantly speeds the proofreading/e-book creation process.
When a proofreader elects to proofread a page of a particular book, the text and image file are displayed on a single web page. This allows the page text to be easily reviewed and compared to the image file, thus assisting the proofreading of the page text. The edited text is then re-submitted to the site via the same web page on which it was. A second proofreader is then presented with the work of the first proofreader and the page image. Once they have verified the work of the first proofreader and corrected any additional errors the page text is again re-submitted to the site. In most cases, a third proofreader then views and corrects the text as necessary. The book then progresses through two formatting rounds using the same web interface.
Once all pages for a particular book have been processed, a post-processor joins the pieces, properly formats them into a Project Gutenberg Canada e-book and submits it via DPC to the Project Gutenberg Canada archive.
How You Can Help
The first step to take to help us out is to register as a new proofreader. (A 'Register' link also appears at the top of the screen.) After you register be sure to read both the email you receive as well as FAQ Central, which provides helpful resources on how to proofread. (See also the 'Help' at the top of any screen.) After you have registered & read through some of the introductory documents choose an interesting-looking book from our Current Projects and try proofreading a page or two. A special group of projects is set aside for Beginning proofreaders only.
You don't even have to register to have a look at the Smooth Reading Pool, though you do to upload corrections. Follow the link for more information.
Remember that there is no commitment expected on this site. Proofread as often or as seldom as you like, doing as many or as few pages as you like. We encourage people to do 'a page a day', but it's entirely up to you! We hope you will join us in our mission of 'preserving the literary history of the world in a freely available form for everyone to use'.
