February 13, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #31--February 13, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Simon Says...
We have now decided to suspend any further work on converting the Guidelines to wiki pages, pending our completely changed approach to the site, planned for August 1. But I do believe we should create wiki-based "checklists" to help members get into new areas of work--like CPing, PMing and PPing. So, there's no reason we couldn't begin putting together these checklists now.
Of course, there have been many versions of such checklists in the past--they do need updating. So, I invite anyone interested in helping to dig up such checklists, or their own favourite lists of procedures, and submit them to me, by e-mail or PM, to serve as starting points for creating new working documents:
1. CPing or prepping projects:
- choosing books to work on
- harvesting scans (including semi-automated methods like "grab")
- ensuring books are complete (finding missing pages...)
- scanning books from scratch
- modifying scans for better OCR (micro-rotation, stripping of foxing and other defects, despeckling...)
- OCRing and saving of resulting text files (always UTF-8)
- prepping illos (high- and low-res versions)
2. PMing and facilitating projects:
- previewing project content
- flagging potential problems
- setting up project pages (encouraging members to work on the project, suggesting helpful techniques)
- preparing word lists (might as well get used to it, WordCheck is coming this Summer)
- following up members' problems (when to ask for expert help...)
- fixing project deficiencies before they get out of P1
- interacting with UberProjects
3. PPing--I'm not even going to start with a short-list here, there are so many approaches. What we really need is a checklist for a new or struggling PPer to follow until they develop their own PPing "style". Bring on your own favourite checklist or technique, and I'll try to reconcile them.
4. Other areas:
- fixing "problem" projects--a Project Hospital, if you like
- balancing the rounds
- feeding more projects (we're getting thin, as you may have noticed, our Foofing and P2 teams are pumping along so well, they're beginning to run out of material)
- locating reliable date of death info on authors
- collecting and checking bio info on authors (we'll need this type of material for our "display" site eventually)
- developing "time-lines" of history--same comment as above (one theme of the display site will be "History in Books")
- recruiting and keeping new members
- encouraging members to work on LOTE projects, at least in P1 and F1
If you're expert or well-informed in any of these areas, please contribute your ideas. If you're relatively new to DP, don't hang back--your ideas and suggestions are welcome, believe me. What could we do better? Impossible to get to all the ideas you'll undoubtedly come up with short term, but we'll try to be responsive, and deal with them eventually.
Perhaps I've overlooked some area entirely in my lists above?
What other (related) activities could DPC get involved in, without diluting our capabilities too much?
What other skills do members have, that they'd be willing to provide, to enhance what we do?
What is the one great problem, existing or potential for the future, that the DP community faces, that we should begin to deal with before it bites us?
Any other "blue sky" thoughts?--might as well get them out for discussion while we're contemplating long-term plans.
Simple Simon
Editorial
Server and site problems--Simple Simon, coachmike and company have continued to work hard on the various problems or glitches. Lots of things have been fixed which is wonderful. A reminder of what still remains:
- The project forums don't get created automatically
- Various graphics don't work--like individual avatars, team avatars, and the illos we put into the wiki
- A few broken links to Guidelines (Simon hopes to fix those within a week)
Project Managers needed--Or perhaps it should be: PMs, we need more projects. Although there are lots of projects in P1: Available (over 35), P2, P3, F1 have been busy and there are less than 20 projects in each of those rounds. Not to mention that there are only a few projects sitting in P1: Waiting….
As requested by De2164, fiction or other "easy" type books are much appreciated. We don’t yet have a really large membership base to handle the "hard" or more esoteric books, so they tend to languish in P1.
If you are interested in being a Project Manager, please send a private message to Simple Simon, our Site Admin. There are also some experienced PMs who will gladly mentor newbie PMs.
P1 help needed'--Proofers, things are slowing down in P1 while P2 and P3 have been working really hard and reducing the number of projects in those rounds. So if the more experienced proofers wouldn't mind helping out with some of the projects that have been sitting in P1 for a couple of months … everyone would be grateful, especially those who work P2 and P3 rounds--that is, yourselves. ;)
ÜberProjects--see the updates below.
Comments regarding bad links to FAQs and Guidelines--Don't forget to let Simple Simon know if there are still some that haven't been dealt with.
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.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Guideline Differences--There are a few differences between the new Guidelines and what we've used before, and a very few diffs from the DP-INT ones. Simon advises that he'll provide a summary of the differences.
Combined Proofing and Formatting Guidelines--Simon has 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. Planned date for issuance is March 15.
The "combined guidelines" will be a very summarized version, not a complete document--but it's a huge task, which is the reason for the delay in issuance. Even DP-INT has no such animal--so we can't copy theirs.
FAQs--See Simple Simon's comments above.
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.
- Volumes 11 and 21 are in F2: Available; Volumes 1, 3, 8 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.
- Five 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,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A chronicle of the Union of 1841, 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 P3: Available; with 2 in P1: Available. 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.
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.
Issue 1 is in P1: Available; Issue 2 is in P1: Waiting with Issues 3 & 4 in the prep stage.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
Scientific American--these are very early issues, too--from 1846. Simon hopes to get it launched this coming week.
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American. I've also been told that Tizz has agreed to co-PM/PP it.
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" is in P1: Available.
- 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 491 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 2009 | 3 |
| January 2009 | 14 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 491 |
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 while they are members of a particular team. So that's why, the team pages go up whenever a team member's totals increase. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- uwe-joachim in F2
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- 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
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Daniel G in P1
- rcool in P2
- snowseraph in P2
- supo88 in P2
- De2164 in F1
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- Team Canada in F1
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
- Foofers' Corner in F1
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Interesting stats for January: P3 was far in the lead, followed by F1, F2, P2 and P1. F2 and P2 just skinned through. Looking back over last year's stats, everyone appears to be taking turns in completing the monthly goals--which is okay.
Now for February: We're "more or less" half way through the month already, but there are fewer days as well so I guess we'll just have to work harder though round goals have been decreased accordingly…. F2 is in the lead right now with just over 50%, P3 is right behind at just under the 50% point, the other rounds need to get going… So 2 weeks from now--who will be in the lead then?...
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| February goal | 2,800 | 2,800 | 2,100 | 2,800 | 2,100 |
| *February to date | 921 | 990 | 1,021 | 612 | 1,082 |
| February to date % | 32.89 % | 35.36 % | 48.62 % | 21.86 % | 51.52 % |
| January goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| January final | 2,271 | 3,101 | 3,538 | 3,730 | 2,372 |
| January final % | 73.26 % | 100.00 % | 152. 17 % | 120.32 % | 102.02 % |
*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 133 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 5 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 99 Silver Star projects in post processing and 100 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 now have 21 teams; more are always welcome.
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....
