February 1, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #4--February 1, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Entries for DPC Newsletter Title
There were 3 entries: The Beaver Bulletin, DP Canada communiqué, and graffitti as well as the original DP Canada Newsletter.
There is a poll set up in this thread--please vote for your favourite, the results will come next issue.
Editorial
DP-Int/US and DP-Europe DPers--you don't have to start at P1 and work your way up. Send a pm to Simple Simon and let him know what permission levels you have at the other site(s). He'll confirm and then assign you the same/appropriate permissions here. Don't forget to let him know if your alias was different at the other site(s)--so he can get the correct information.
English language projects in P1--I see that we keep running short of and, sometimes even run out of, English language projects in P1. Obviously everyone likes what is being offered.
Are you a DP-Int Project Manager who has been thinking about creating some projects for DPC, but just haven't done so yet?... Why not do it now?
Are you a proofer or formatter who has considered "dipping" their toes into the water? There's no time like the present--have a look at the Project Management FAQs, then send a pm to Simple Simon.
Emoticons--is your favourite emoticon not on our list?--send a pm to Simple Simon. Though I'd ask him nicely then he CAN'T refuse.
Revisions to the Proofing Guidelines--Simple Simon and IonaV are working on draft revisions--not an easy job I understand. They are revising the Guidelines to comply with DPC's proofing requirements and, hopefully, making them more understandable to both old and new DPers.
Artists of words and drawings--have you seen our contests? We've got all our entries for the Newsletter Name contest. However, we still need your creativity. The Newletter Tag-line deadline is February 12, 2008--get your ideas in....
Have you been wondering?--What ever happened to that English-language project that was the second half of our first day projects: An Account of Six Years' Residence on Hudson's Bay? Well, Simple Simon finally finished the PPing and the PPVer obviously passed it--it was posted to PGC on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. Congrats, Simon!! And to all who worked so hard on it: a job well done, indeed.
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.
Simon Says...
We’ve made a wonderful start for DPC’s new “career” in producing e-books for the World--looks as if we’ll have 16 books posted for 2 months’ work, with many more in the PP and PPV stages.
What can we do better? coachmike and I are not exactly looking for more tasks to do, but we want to make sure you realize we’re being genuine when we say we want to do a better job of operating DPC in your behalf.
We try hard to respond quickly to your requests and inquiries--but if you don’t get a prompt answer to a dp-req or dp-help inquiry, please feel free to PM me and I’ll get after it.
Now, we need your help on a couple of mini-projects that could substantially improve our performance as a group:
- We are plainly going to need a lot more projects to work on; so, those of you who like to CP, scan and OCR, please get your “jet-propelled roller-skates” on and come up with more projects. If you don’t scan, there are lots of places to “harvest” books from, and help in OCRing is always available.
- DPC (like all the members of the DP community) needs to encourage new members to stay around, learn and grow as Proofers. Far too many people register, do a few pages and leave without really getting into the swing of things. We’re working on cleaning up the Guidelines, but we all need to think about ways we could help these new members feel comfortable and wanted. What do you suggest?
Our colleague, Mark Akrigg, at PG Canada gets our finished e-books posted for the world to see. We’re going to continue working to make excellent products for him to make available. However, there’s a limit to what PGC can do, and the more widely e-books are distributed, the better.
We’d also like to establish what we call a “display” site, to feature our books, together with selected e-books from other archives around the world. This would, in effect, function as a “mirror” or safeguard to make sure our completed e-books are always available, but it can do far more.
The technologies exist to make the display site:
- much richer in graphics (most e-book archives are fairly dull places to visit)
- much easier for the end-reader to use (powerful search capabilities, including search by author, title, date of publication, language, genre, country of origin, publisher ... even search within the content of the book itself)
- much more fun--features such as author bios, quotations, book reviews, info on “coming PD material”, special days....
- much more comprehensive--material from several/many books cross-referenced into picture galleries, historical timelines or subject summaries, with references to specific e-books, musical scores, a wider representation of languages....
So, how should we proceed? Who wants to help? Who do you know, perhaps in other parts of the PG/DP community, or even outside it, who would “pitch in” on such projects. We have the opportunity to provide a resource a magnitude greater in utility and pleasure to the reading public--remember, our shared purpose is “preserving history, one page at a time”--but we can do far more, we can make history LIVE.
Interested? Tell me how you think this could be made earth-shattering, because that’s the level of impact we’re looking for.
ÜberProject #1: Chronicles of Canada
Currently, Volumes 5 and 20 are going through the proofing rounds; and Volume 29 is in PPing. How's it going Simple Simon?
Warmheart has kindly volunteered to PM and PP Volume 13: The United Empire Loyalists and Volume 24: The Family Compact which were authored by W. Stewart Wallace who died in 1970 as well as Volume 17: Tecumseh, A Chronicle of the Last Great Leader of his People which was authored by Ethel Raymond who died in 1960. Due to the death dates of the authors (after 1957), the volumes cannot be done by DPC. However, Warmheart is taking these volumes to DP-Int where their copyright criteria includes publication dates prior to 1923, but does not include death dates. Warmheart tells us that Volume 13 has been cleared and is currently in P1-- those that wish can help with the proofing and/or formatting of the volume.
There are still lots of spaces for volunteers to PM, PP and even CP. Check out the ÜberProject wiki page for The Chronicles of Canada here.
Most amusing line
And another contribution from Gironina (Gill).
Quote:
I just found the funniest scanno in Clouds of Witness; a very badly printed "l" produced: "Heil!" cried Peter,...
[Editor: The actual line reads-- "Hell!" cried Peter, exploding. "I'll have the truth of this beastly business if we all go to the gallows together!"
For those of you who are ardent fans of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series, you know that "heil" is not something that he would likely say. Most especially since the original story was written long before the world events occurred that bring up such ambiguous memories of the word. It is a simple German word meaning "hail": a greeting and it is not a language that Lord Peter was accustomed to using.]
Contests / Competitions--Let Your Creativity Run Wild...
You've probably seen topic threads under the Promotion of DP Canada forum ... basically, how can we improve DPC? If you have any ideas, let us know. Simple Simon and coachmike won't make promises, but they'd like to know what you want to see improved and/or changed.
Newsletter Tag-line Contest:
I don't have one yet, or any ideas, do you? So start creating (yes, you can look up those old quotations that you learned in school for ideas ...). Send a pm to Quill by February 12, 2008 [Note: new deadline] and then we can all vote on the results. If you use wording from someone else (living or dead), please be sure to provide the applicable credit.
Calling all artists and wannabe artists:
Simple Simon has suggested a mascot for the newsletter and I thought, why not a mascot for the DPC site? After all, they already are asking for ideas to improve look of the DPC site. I did like his suggestion of a "beaver working on a book"; however, use your imagination. If some of you are "paper and paint/ink/pencil/pen" types and need help getting your creation into an electronic format, I'm sure one of our illustrator types or CPers would be glad to give you help or provide instructions on how to scan it. Closer to the deadline (probably sometime in February), I'll provide a link for uploading your finished entries. All entries should be properly credited.
For the above contests, you may get the assistance of anyone for ideas, but be sure you give your assistants credit for their part.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 295 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 | |
|---|---|
| February 2008 | 0 |
| January 2008 | 58 |
| December 2007 | 142 |
| to Nov. 30, 2007 | 95 |
| Total to date | 295 |
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Our members continue to be very productive. Every day you continue to out do the goals set by Simple Simon and coachmike. January daily goals were increased to 100 pages for each round--for a monthly goal of 3,100 pages per round. So that means February's goals will be 2,900 pages per round. (It's a leap year, people; therefore, there is one extra day in February.)
P1 kept the lead for January and finished at 196%. Way to go, guys!!! Now ... can you keep to the same pace for February?
All the other rounds succeeded in beating their goals as well: P2: 171%, P3: 137%, F1: 125% and F2: 104%. Jobs well done, all.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| February goal | 2,900 | 2,900 | 2,900 | 2,900 | 2,900 |
| *February to date | 33 | 76 | 25 | 29 | 0 |
| February % | 1.14 % | 2.62 % | 0.86 % | 1.00 % | 0.00 % |
| January goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 3,100 | 3,100 | 3,100 |
| **January final | 6,077 | 5,311 | 4,262 | 3,897 | 3,242 |
| January final % | 196.03 % | 171.32 % | 137.48 % | 125.71 % | 104.61 % |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
**Numbers might be out a page or two.
One thing to keep in mind when we compare the numbers of pages done in each round: because some projects will skip P3 and/or F2 (for reasons you'd have to ask the PM &/or PPer about), the number of pages available for those rounds to work on can be less than the other rounds in any given time period.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PGC
At press time, we had 17 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 4 in PPV). Fantastic work, all; and many thanks to the PPVers who got them through.
There are currently 21 Silver Star projects in post processing and 35 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.
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 have 13 teams: Team Canada is still in top spot--should we be surprised?
Our newest team is "Weather Reports". ...Now I wonder what topic they will be discussing?
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.
- 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.
- 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 & 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....
