January 1, 2010
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 3, Issue #54--January 1, 2010
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Simon Says...
First, an acknowledgement--we have posted 21 books to PGC this month--a record for DPC. And, it's the very first time that DPC has exceeded 10% of the number posted by DP-INT in a month. We have long ago "passed" DP-EUR and PG-AUS in numbers posted per month. Congratulations everyone!!
New Year's Resolutions:
One of my favourite "blogs" that I follow has offered 8 simple rules for New Year's Resolutions, and I pass them on to you--in my next edition of "Simon Says", I'll explain how these rules will apply to DPC:
Rule 1: Commit to Your Resolution
Successful resolutions start with a strong commitment to make a change. To succeed, you must believe that you can accomplish what you set out to do, and really want to achieve it.
Rule 2: Be Realistic
The key to achieving goals is continued motivation. If you set goals that are too difficult, you risk failing. Consistently failing at something is profoundly de-motivating
Rule 3: Write It Down
A simple but powerful technique for making your goal feel real is to put your resolution into writing. There is something inside us that creates more commitment and drive when we do this. Consider writing your resolution down on pieces of card, and keeping it where you'll see it often – on your desk, on the fridge door, or in your wallet.
Rule 4: Make a Plan
This is where so many resolutions fall down. Articulating what you want to achieve is one thing; deciding how to do it is quite another.
Rule 5: Be Flexible
Not everything will work out precisely the way you planned. If you are too rigid in your approach to making resolutions, the first minor obstacle can throw you off your course completely.
Rule 6: Use a System of Reminders
It's hard to keep focused on your plan when you have many other commitments, responsibilities, and obligations. The best way to stay on top of your resolution is to develop a formal reminder system.
Rule 7: Track Your Progress
You won't know how well you are doing unless you keep track of your progress. This is why your detailed plan is so important. By building excitement around the little successes, you can keep yourself motivated, and keep pushing forwards.
Rule 8: Reward Yourself
Although knowledge of a job well done can be reward enough, we all enjoy a little treat from time to time. Even the most committed person needs a boost, and sometimes that is best accomplished through an external reward.
Now, one of the most difficult parts of adopting "resolutions" for DPC, or any volunteer organization, is that we're all volunteers. Real life, or other matters that are important to each of us, may intervene. In our plans for 2010, we're going to recognize this fact, and set simple, achievable goals.
First of all, the monthly target for F2 is raised to 4,000 pages...no, seriously, I'm thinking of just 4 goals for us, and I'll share them with you in the next issue of the Newsletter. [Ed: He's being facetious, people. He wouldn't do that ... at least, I don't think so....]
How about you?--do you have some goal that you really intend to achieve in 2010?
In any case, Happy New Year!!!
When the New Year Comes
by Adair
While each day is a new opportunity, a new piece of life as yet unwritten, it does seem that whichever New Year people celebrate provides an opportunity to re-think, re-evaluate, and start a new chapter. Some people make quite well intentioned grand resolutions, only to find them shattered within weeks ... or even days. For your author, I do have resolutions, but they always come with a completion date of 12/31/next year. 365 days of opportunity to make that goal or plan become reality.
For DPC, I would propose a constant focus on the entire purpose of electronic book preparation, the book available in easy to access form in the highest quality that can be reasonably produced. Not unlike the mature tree that you may sit beneath, there is no significance to how frozen the ground was when you struggled to plant it, nor how many of the trees never made it through the storms. It is simply the reader some decades or more later, reading something that we made possible as a cohesive group.
The actual process that we use, the rules about when and if to leave blanks while proofreading, the decision about a period inside or outside an italic markup, the number of pages we processed this day, the intense discussions about specific other place site issues, these are process and people issues. Some are related to the task at hand, some are frustrations that if made often enough and loud enough will result in new and experienced volunteers quietly making their way to the exit. (Some not so quietly.) It seems that this distributed process was established to make it possible for many people to work piece meal on a project, one page, one focus, one person. The process does matter, it eases the book along the way; the people matter because they can see and do things that computer software only does poorly at this time.
The Mission is clear.
(1) Preserve Canadiana, one page at a time (2) Make books published more available to the public
Can we take 2010, the whole year, to look at the Mission first, then have lively polite conversation to determine what process we need to use at this location. Can we look at the entire life cycle of the book from copyright clearance to posting the project - then the completion of one task is a step along the way to the goal. Until someone can sit under that mature tree with the electronic book in their hands, we are not done.
"Horn Tooting"
recommended by Adair:
Antigony recently had her first PP project posted to PG Canada: Stories from The Bible by Walter de la Mare.
Doing the PPing was a real challenge and a great accomplishment for Antigony. We congratulate her on a job well done. She's working on her second PP project now.
Editorial
New Year's Resolutions--We've started a brand new year and a brand new decade. Have you made any New Year's Resolutions yet? Are any DP related?
Monthy round targets--We've done very well this past year in meeting and exceeding monthly round targets. Although Simple Simon and coachmike have not said anything, yet, about increasing our monthly page targets, we can still plan to continue to exceed them.
Calling all CPers--De2164 (David) still needs more projects since many of what he has in the P1 queue are multi-volume projects which have to wait their turn; please and thank you. New non-multi volume projects are being released into P1 almost immediately now.
Calling all Proofers--We still need on getting projects into the higher rounds. Maybe all proofers could commit to doing a few more pages every week ... those poor F1s don't have many projects to choose from and even F2 is suffering. Even foofers can help with proofing you know.
Post Processing--Lots of available projects for PPers--our "newest" F2s have been working overtime finishing up the formatting.
If you are interested in trying out a new skill, there are several experienced PPers who will give some direction if asked. Lostpaces has offered to mentor new PPers so you are not alone. Check out her forum discussion thread: Would like to PP? Check here
"Horn Tooting" and/or Kudos--For those PMs and/or PPers who have had projects posted, we've got a new section (see above) for "horn tooting" whether you want to let people know about your first or second or tenth or ... posted project; or if you just completed an especially difficult project; or if someone believes that a certain PPer should be congratulated for a job well done. Please send a PM to Quill and we'll ensure that comments are published.
PLEASE NOTE--Update--The "new" FAQs and non-English Guidelines that you can access through the new FAQ Central page either have been or are being revised to be truly DPC versions.
Formatting Guidelines--Simon and IonaV are working on Version 2 for the Formatting Guidelines.
Server and site issues--In a previous issue, Simon advised that he and coachmike hope to get the new "to us" site code up in the first quarter of 2010. We'll let you know as that date gets closer.
There's still the odd server problem that has continued, but hopefully those will be cleared up once the site code is upgraded.
ÜberProjects--see the updates below. For those that are interested, Simon has decided that he's going to post periodicals to PG-Int as well since the ones we are doing are all pre-1923. It will also give DPC work greater coverage. He'll also be posting the Chronicles of Canada series to PG-Int so that we'll have the complete series together--due to the fact that several of the volumes have authors who are not yet in Canada's Public Domain.
David (De2164) is pushing the rest of the Chronicles of Canada volumes into the rounds so the proofers and foofers can get them done and we can get onto the next big ÜberProject.
Watch for some new ÜberProjects in 2010.
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 anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Guideline Differences--Once we get our Proofreading and Formatting Guidelines updated to go along with our upcoming site code upgrade, we intend to produce a wikipage with the differences. We're working on the Guidelines updates at this time and we hope to produce the "differences" page shortly thereafter.
Please see items under the Editorial regarding the status of the revisions to the Proofreading and Formatting Guidelines.
Upgraded DPC site code--In his Simon Says... article of Dec 4/09, Simon advised that we could, hopefully, see it in the first quarter of 2010. My fingers are crossed.
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 and IonaV are doing the prep on the rest of the volumes. Sufficient PMs have volunteered--we just need PPers, but the volumes can be picked up from the PP pool when they have completed the rounds unless there is a volume that a PPer really wants to do--in that case let the PM know sooner rather than later.
- 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 25 is in P1: Waiting; Volumes 16 and 19 are in P1: Available; Volumes 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 21, 31 and 32 are available for or in Post-Processing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue with one or two yet to be 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 all in the P3 waiting queue.
- Nine volumes have been posted to PGC and/or PG-International:
- Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History, A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada,
- Volume 2: The Mariner of St Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier,
- Volume 3: The Founder of New France, A Chronicle of Champlain,
- Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: A Chronicle of New World Feudalism,
- Volume 8: The Great Fortress: A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760,
- Volune 18: The 'Adventures of England on Hudson Bay', A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North,
- Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A Ahronicle 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, is currently in F2: 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, is in F2: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
Vol. 67: Lower Canada, Abenakis, Louisiana; 1716- 1727 is in P3: Available. Lots of "fun" with strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages.
Vol. 68: Lower Canada, Crees, Louisiana; 1720-1736 is in P1: Available. Again, lots of "fun" with strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages.
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 periodicals ÜberProject. All the first year's volumes are either in process or completed. There are two issues in post-processing. Ten issues have been posted. The second year has started now with four in the proofing rounds and two waiting.
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.
Eight issues are in PP, three issues are undergoing proofing or formatting. Vol. 1, issue 1 has been posted to Project Gutenberg Canada.
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. The first issue has now been posted. Simon has more being prepped for proofing.
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American.
The Maple Leaf--This is a Canadian juvenile periodical published between 1852 and 1854. Susan and IonaV are going to share the duties of PMing. Iona is handling the prep, Susan has downloaded the scans and will do the PPing. They are hoping to get it into the rounds within the next week or so.
A wikipage has been created: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Maple_Leaf
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 ...
- Bleak House, the original version illustrated by "Phiz", is in prep.
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in F2: Available.
- A Christmas Carol, The Original Manuscript has been posted to Project Gutenberg.
- 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.
ÜberProject #6: John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and military leader of Canada, and one of the true Canadian "Fathers of Confederation". This is NOT dull history either.
Projects about or by Simcoe in proofing and/or formatting rounds: 2; post-processing: 1. Two have been posted to PGC.
Simon has more prepped or waiting to be prepped.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 795 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 2009 | 21 |
| November 2009 | 20 |
| October 2009 | 22 |
| 2009 Q3 | 35 |
| 2009 Q2 | 55 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 795 |
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 50,000 pages in a round:
- Foofers' Corner in F2 NEW!!!
Completed 45,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2
Completed 40,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 35,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- Team USA in P3
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- Ex-Pats in F2 NEW!!!
- Foofers' Corner in F1
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2 NEW!!!
- Team Canada in P1 and P2
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- De2164 in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 NEW!!!
- rcool in P2
- P3 Pros in P3
- Scribe in F2
- Team Canada in F1
- Team German in F2
- Team USA in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Adair in F1 and F2
- Antigony in F1
- Daniel G in P1
- gmiller in P2
- hugger1935 in F2
- mcbax in P3
- Miscia in P3
- Pippin in F1
- rcool in P1
- snowseraph in P1 and P2
- stygiania in P3 and F2
- supo88 in P2
- Warmheart in P2 and F1
- yajeulb in F1
- DPing with Cats in P1, P2 and F1
- Foofers' Corner in P2 and P3
- Infomaniacs in P2 and P3
- P2 Expediters in P3 and F2
- P3 Pros in F2
- Team British Columbia in P1, P2 and P3
- Team Canada in P3
- Team German in P3
- Team Smoothy (aka 'Smoothies') in P2
- Team UK in P1 and P2
- Team USA in P2 and F1
And how many pages have been done in each of the rounds? Naturally, F2 will be at the bottom since they are the last round that gets the projects before PPing and P1 will be on top since they get to start all the projects. <grin> Another consideration is that P3 or F2 stats may be slightly smaller if the PM/PPer has skipped his/her/their project through either one or both of those rounds. So let's see where each round was at the end of December:
- P1 completed over 126,000 pages
- P2 completed over 117,000 pages
- P3 completed over 104,000 pages
- F1 completed over 106,000 pages
- F2 completed over 101,000 pages
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Everyone made their December targets before the end of the month .... What a great way to end the year!!!
Naturally, since this is the first day of the new month (and the new year), it's hard to tell what each round will do. Let's hope we can reach our targets again. Afterall, we've done very well this past year in meeting and exceeding monthly targets.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| December target | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| December final | 5,567 | 4,880 | 6,228 | 6,540 | 13,371 |
| December final % | 163.26% | 143.11% | 200.90% | 191.79% | 431.32% |
| January target | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| *January to date | 51 | 67 | 10 | 14 | 100 |
| January to date % | 1.50% | 1.96% | 0.32% | 0.41% | 3.23% |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PG Canada or PG-International
At press time, we had 268 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 8 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 287 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 have 26 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....
