Getting started
From DPCanadaWiki
Goal of this page: This article is intended to be the briefest useful overview of all of DPC for a new user, including but not limited to the wiki.
If you're familiar with DPC in general, but not the DPC Wiki, you can click here to view that article specifically.
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What is DPC?
Distributed Proofreaders Canada
We rescue out-of-copyright (and frequently out-of-print) books and convert them to "electronic texts" that can be read by people on most computers or on hand-held devices such as PDAs or e-text readers. The books we choose to work on are ordinary books from all over the world, some classics, some not. Every one of them was interesting enough that someone — or many someones, like you! — invested a great deal of time scanning, checking and double-checking the text and illustrations before sending it out to the world via Project Gutenberg Canada.
It's "Distributed" because the work of proofreading is spread out among our many volunteers: anyone can do as much or as little as they please. This site provides a web-based method of easing the work associated with accurately proofreading and formatting Public Domain books. Dividing the work into individual pages enables many proofreaders to work on the same book at the same time. This significantly speeds up the proofreading/e-book creation process. You can learn more about DPC history by reading the Distributed Proofreaders Canada site concept.
How to start Proofing
What is it?
Proofreading at DPC is the process of carefully correcting the OCR'd text of pages to match the characters shown on the scanned images of that project's pages. This is often called proofing, and is normally performed in the rounds P1, P2, and P3. In order to standardize this process, we have Proofreading Guidelines that explain how to handle most situations, and a Proofing Handy Guide which summarizes the guidelines.
How to do it
New volunteers begin proofreading in P1. If you have registered an account with DPC, then you can start proofreading right now! You may want to start with Beginners Only or Newcomers Only projects, which are handled and processed in ways to make them especially suitable for new proofreaders. Follow the directions in this checklist to begin, or go through the DP Walkthrough to see what proofreading will be like.
How to start Formatting
What is it?
After the text is checked over in the proofing rounds, a project moves into the formatting phase. Formatting is the process of adding special markup for italics, boldface, SMALL CAPITALS, chapter and section headers, footnotes, etc., to a project. Formatting of a project's individual pages is performed in rounds F1 and F2. There are Formatting Guidelines for these rounds, and the Formatting Handy Guide summarizes those guidelines.
How to do it.
The requirements to work in F1 are:
- 300 pages proofed in P1
- 3 weeks or more elapsed since registration at DPC
- having passed the formatting quiz
Once you meet these requirements, go to the F1 page], scroll down until you see the requirements listed, and click on the link to request access (it will automatically be granted).
Communicating With Other DPers
Our Jargon
Any online (or offline) community will develop its own jargon over time: DPC is no exception. So the newcomer is presented with mysterious terms and acronyms such as OCR, groofing, scanno, PM, etc. Never fear, we've put together jargon guides so you can work out what on earth we're talking about.
The Forums
A forum is an asynchronous communication mechanism in which public messages called posts are made (posted), usually in topical threads. On other sites, this type of communication software can be called a newsgroup or a bulletin board. Here at DPC, we have the DPC Forums.
To see information about the complementary roles of the DPC Wiki and the DPC Forums, see the Forums vs Wiki page.
The Private Message
A Private Message (PM), sometimes called Personal Message, can be sent through DPC's phpBB forum. This is basically the same as e-mail, but can be sent only from one DPCer to another.
Check your DP Inbox here.
The DPC Wiki
Jabber
Many of our DPC'ers (Proofers, Formatters, Post-Processors) meet online regularly using a protocol called Jabber. What is Jabber? A good place to start is looking at the Wikipedia entry on it, found here. Instructions for downloading a Jabber program and setting it up can be found here. Make sure to take a look at the green links further down the page; these are the chat rooms we use, and most of us can be found in one or more of them at any one time.
Moving On in DPC
How to advance to P2
The requirements to work in P2 are:
- 300 pages proofed in P1
- 3 weeks or more elapsed since registration at DPC
- having passed the proofreading quiz
Once you meet these requirements, go to the P2 page, scroll down until you see the requirements listed, and click on the link to request access (it will automatically be granted).
Also in P2 you have the opportunity to take on other volunteer roles such as Mentoring.
How to advance to P3
Once you've been a member for at least 6 weeks, and met a few other requirements, you can apply for P3. Check out the P3 qualification article for more details about the requirements and the process.
How to advance to F2
If you've formatted at least 400 pages in F1, then you can apply for F2. There's some info on the process in this forum post.
This information will be updated within 3 months of "the Starting Gun", to reflect actual practice at DP Canada (the post referred to above is also slightly out-of-date).
Providing Content
Anyone at DPC can help to provide content! If you have books that you want to put on PGC, take a look at the Content Providing FAQ to learn about copyright requirements and the scanning process.
If you're new to DPC, you'll probably want to find someone else to be the Project Manager for the projects that you provide. If you have some experience here, then you might want to manage them yourself. If so, refer to the Project Managing FAQ for more info.
We always need help tracking down Missing pages. If you want to help with content providing but are daunted by scanning a whole book, this can be a great place to start.
Post-Processing
If you've formatted at least 400 pages in F1, then you can become a PPer. The Post-Processing FAQ has lots of info about what it involves and how to go about it, as well as links to other resources.
PPVing
Volunteers become Post-processing verifiers through peer review of their PP projects.
