September 25, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #47--September 25, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Simon Says...
DPC is facing an operational crisis of sorts--we are critically short of material in F1!!!
Basically, this has happened because our Foofers are extremely efficient, and have pushed all the available projects through.
We may actually achieve the F1 target for this month, but there will not be sufficient pages left in the F1 "hopper" to make next month's target.
Not even close--the natural progression of projects through P3 will help somewhat, but still, we'll be short.
So, I'm launching a "blitz" program to deal with the situation. It may not change matters for October, but it should bring much better "round balance" for the future. Every member of DPC will need to participate for this program to work.
1. I invite all PMs who currently have projects in P3 to contact me about the possibility of skipping P3 for some of these projects. Even if the P3 proofing has begun, we can still skip, if you agree. Good candidates for skipping would be either:
- a) English projects that don't have any special circumstances (lots of LOTE content, for example);
- b) LOTE projects that have been languishing in P3 forever, where there is a committed PPer, and another fluent speaker of the language amongst DPC members (could be the PM), who will commit to at least a smooth-read/spell-check.
2. All PMs and CPers--please clean out your cupboards, and get a huge number of new projects into P1
- a) fill in those missing pages on projects that are already created, and get them into P1;
- b) create and populate new projects (I'm committing to 10 new projects in the next week).
In the long run, the only solution to balancing the rounds is to fill P1, then spend more of our time Proofing, and a bit less Foofing. Let's also contemplate skipping P3 on appropriate new projects, from the outset.
3. All members should commit to spending some time in P1 and P2 every week, so as to gradually fill up the F1 queue.
4. The PFs and I will make sure that there are no delays in getting new projects into P1 (temporarily, our current informal understanding about limiting manual releases into P1 is suspended--all ready projects will go forward).
5. If you'd like to try CPing or PMing, and need some support or help, let me know.
Colleagues, this is serious--if we don't resolve this situation, our workflow will slowly grind to a halt.
Editorial
If you have any skills in languages other than French or English--even if they are only rudimentary--your help in P1, P2 or F1 would be greatly appreciated on LOTE projects. We are hoping to rescue a few projects from DP-Europe since they are having problems there. I don't know where such projects will start but any help you can give will be gratefully accepted.
Even if you have no skills in other languages and if the text uses Latin characters, doing P1 proofing of LOTE projects is relatively easy since you are matching the text to the scan. P2 and P3 proofers will check spelling and printer errors. And F1 is even easier since you are just concerned with the formatting not the actual words.
PLEASE NOTE: The "new" FAQs and non-English Guidelines, including the Proofreading Guidelines and Formatting Guidelines, that you can access through the new FAQ Central page contain DP-Int content. These are in the process of being revised for DPC.
Proofreading and Formatting Guidelines--Simon and IonaV are working on Version 2 for each of the Guidelines. They will be much closer to what DP-Int's currently are; though we'll still have our basic "match the scan" policy when it comes to things like ellipses.
Server and site problems--We've had our new server for a month now and, naturally, some problems did crop up though several of our old problems did disappear. Our updated site code is coming soon as you will see from Simon's article above. If you do see any major problems, please send a PM to Simon to let him know. Or post in the Code Update Aug 2009 - reports of possible issues thread.
Checklists--Several months ago, Simon was producing basic checklists for DPers--though he has taken a short break while the site code is being updated. He started with PPing basic checklists for simple projects: he has done checklists for startup, text version, HTML version, HTML Tables, "illustrations"--for PPers and CPers and CSS. The final item on Simon's PPing list is "tools for PPers": sounds interesting. He should be back at it once the site upgrade no longer occupies his time.
Simon has created a wikipage (linked to the main DPC Wiki) for the Checklists for New PPers. He has included the checklists that he has done so far. You can see from the Table of Contents what he plans for future checklists.
Any and all comments and/or questions from PPers are requested and welcome. Anyone else can comment as well. Send any questions or comments to Simple Simon.
Once the PPing checklists are done, he'll do some for CPing and PMing.
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.
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.
Combined Proofing and Formatting Guidelines-- The eventual "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, among other tasks that are keeping Simon very busy. Even DP-INT has no such animal--so we can't copy theirs. Once it is drafted, Simon will ask for review by experienced proofers and foofers to ensure that it is understandable--that is, not confusing or missing some extremely important rule.
New DPC site code--It's almost here....
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.
- Volumes 4 and 12 have been split into multiple parts and are being used for BEGIN projects. A number of parts of each volume are sitting in P1: Waiting (English BEGIN) until they are needed; several parts are currently in various rounds undergoing proofing or formatting; and several parts of each volume have made it through to PPing though they won't be finalized until all parts are done--that may take awhile depending on how many newbies we get.
- Volumes 7, 10 and 31 are in P1: Available, Volumes 15 is in P2: Available, Volume 32 is in P3: Available; Volumes 6, 9, 11, 14 and 21 are available for Post-Processing; Vols. 3 and 18 have completed PPing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue with a couple more 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.
- Seven volumes have been posted to PGC:
- 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 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: a Chronicle of New World Feudalism,
- Volume 8: The Great Fortress: A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760,
- 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 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, our second, 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 now in P2: Available.
Simon is working on the prep of another volume.
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 currently undergoing proofing or formatting with three in Post Processing. Seven issues have been posted to PGC and/or PG-Int. The second year has started now with one in the proofing rounds and five 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.
Three issues are in PP, four issues are undergoing proofing or formatting. Warmheart also has one in P1: Waiting, and three of the first year are in prep. 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 is in post processing.
- 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 730 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 | |
|---|---|
| September 2009 | 13 |
| August 2009 | 4 |
| July 2009 | 16 |
| 2009 Q2 | 55 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 730 |
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 40,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2
Completed 35,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- Team USA in P3
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P2
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2
- Foofers' Corner in F1
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- De2164 in F1
- Team German in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Adair in F1
- Daniel G in P1
- rcool in P1 and P2
- snowseraph in P1 and P2
- stygiania in P3 and F2
- supo88 in P2
- Warmheart in P2 and F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- Team USA in P2 and F2
- Team Canada in P3 and F1
- Team German in P3
- Infomaniacs in P3
- Foofers' Corner in P2
- P3 Pros in P3 and F2
- P2 Expediters in P3 and F2 NEW!!!
- DPing with Cats 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 August:
- P1 completed over 105,000 pages
- P2 completed over 94,000 pages
- P3 completed over 84,000 pages
- F1 completed over 86,000 pages
- F2 completed over 68,000 pages
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Okay, people--5-1/2 days to go ... P3 and F1 need help to reach their September targets; P1, P2 and F2 have reached their September page goals.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| September goal | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,000 | 3,300 | 3,000 |
| *September to date | 4,145 | 3,979 | 2,292 | 2,930 | 4,005 |
| September to date % | 125.61% | 120.58% | 76.40% | 88.79% | 133.50% |
*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 226 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 2 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 172 Silver Star projects in post processing and 150 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 currently have 24 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....
