PG Weekly Newsletter: Part 1b (2006-04-05)

by Michael Cook on April 5, 2006
Newsletters

From hart at pglaf.org  Wed Apr  5 09:11:41 2006
From: hart at pglaf.org (Michael Hart)
Date: Thu Apr  6 11:00:47 2006
Subject: [gweekly] PT1B Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0604050910590.5083@pglaf.org>

pt1b5.306
Weekly_April_05.txt
**The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, April 05, 2006  PT1**
*******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971********


PT1B

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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders


     In the first 03.00 months of this year, we produced 901 new eBooks.

It took us from July 1971 to May 1997 to produce our first 901 eBooks!

            That's 13 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 Years!!!

                  53   New eBooks This Week
                  38   New eBooks Last Week
                 265   New eBooks This Month [Mar]

                 300   Average Per Month in 2006
                 266   Average Per Month in 2005 Counting 216 PGEu
                 248   Average Per Month in 2005 Not Counting PGEu
                 336   Average Per Month in 2004
                 355   Average Per Month in 2003
                 203   Average Per Month in 2002
                 103   Average Per Month in 2001

                 901   New eBooks in 2006
                3186   New eBooks in 2005  Counting 216 PGeu
             >  2970   New eBooks in 2005  Not Counting PGEu
                4049   New eBooks in 2004
                4164   New eBooks in 2003
                2441   New eBooks in 2002
                1240   New eBooks in 2001
                ====
              15,981   New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
                       That's Only 63.00 Months!
                       ~254 books per month!

              19,046  Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
              15,946   eBooks This Week Last Year
                ====
               3,100   New eBooks In Last 12 Months
                       [Incl. PGAu PGEu & PrePrints]

                 555   eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
                       [This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted
                       at the U.S. site:  www.gutenberg.org ]

                 286   eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Europe

                 141   Entry From Project Gutenberg PrePrints

You may also want to look at Project Runeberg [Scandinavian]
http://runeberg.org

*

Project Gutenberg began operation on July 4, 1971
Project Runeberg began operation on December 13, 1992
Distributed Proofreaders began October 22, 2000
    [Became an official PG-US site in 2002]
Project Gutenberg of Australia began in August, 2001
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center started in 1997]
    [Became an official PG-US site in 2003]
Project Gutenberg of Europe started January 12, 2004
    [Posted first books February 26, when we met in Brussels
    to address people at the European Union Parliament.
Project Gutenberg PrePrints Started January 25, 2006
http://preprints.pglaf.org/ old
http://preprints.readingroo.ms/ new
*

PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:

Since starting production in October 2000,
Distributed Proofreaders has contributed
8,265 Books to Project Gutenberg.
36 added this week.

For more complete DP statistics, visit:
http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php

*

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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report

I haven't had time to incorporate the new additions,
as the Consortia Center recently doubled in size, for
a current total of ~75,000 eBooks at http://gutenberg.cc


Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below.

PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as:

Alex-Wire Tap Collection,           2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection,             12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection,   141 eBook Files
DjVu Collection,                      272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files
eBooks@Adelaide Collection,        27,709 eBook Files
Himalayan Academy,                  3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive                  ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress]  <<<
Literal Systems Collection,            68 MP3 eBook Files
Logos Group Collection,           ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
Poet's Corner Poetry Collection,    6,700 Poetry Files
Project Gutenberg Collection,      15,035 eBook Files
PGCC Chinese eBook Collection       ~300 eBook files   <<< Note Name Change
Renaisscance Editions Collection,     561 HTML eBook Files
Swami Center Collection,               78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection,                223 HTML eBook Files
Widger Library,                     2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room,      2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files=====

Average Size of the Collections     8,067.18 Total Files


These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of
their donors:  some are one file per book; some have a
file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a
single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons
I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the
overcounting or duplication of numbers.

If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
                                   ~45,714 Unique eBooks

If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
                                   ~34,286 Unique eBooks

[The new total of ~75,000 eBooks has eliminated many of
the necessities for calculating unique eBooks this way]


***

Please also note that over 25,000 eBooks are listed via
The Online Books Page, of which over 5,700 are from PG.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

In addition:  The Internet Public Library had a similar
listing which is now in limbo.  If anyone knows what is
happening with the IPL, please let us know.  Inquiries,
made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up
any current information.

You can try a new IPL service at:

http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/

It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended
its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which
has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page.

Still looking for more Internet Public Library info.

***

Today Is Day #091 of 2006
This Completes Week #13 and Month #03.00  [364 days this year]
   274 Days/39 Weeks To Go  [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
954 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]

    69   Weekly Average in 2006
    61   Weekly Average in 2005  [Counting 216 PGEu]
    57   Weekly Average in 2005  [Not Counting PGEu]
    78   Weekly Average in 2004
    79   Weekly Average in 2003
    47   Weekly Average in 2002
    24   Weekly Average in 2001

    45   Only ~45 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers List
          [Used to be well over 100]
          [This listing usually from the previous week]

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***


Statistical Review

In the 13 weeks of this year, we have produced ~901 new eBooks.
It took us from 07/71 to 05/96 to produce our FIRST 901 eBooks!!!

          That's 13 WEEKS as Compared to ~26 YEARS!!!


FLASHBACK!

Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #901

Mon Year Title and Author                                  [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright

[Note:  books without month and year entries are now in new catalog format]

Jun 1997 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe [#1][usherxxx.xxx]  932
Jun 1997 The Bab Ballads, by W. S. Gilbert [Gilbert #3]    [2babbxxx.xxx]  931
Jun 1997 The Cook's Decameron, by Mrs. W. G. Water         [ckdecxxx.xxx]  930
Jun 1997 The Cyberpunk Fakebook, by St. Jude & R.U. Sirius [fakebxxx.xxx]  929C


May 1997 Alice In Wonderland, HTML Version of 30th Edition [alicexxh.xxx]  928
May 1997 The Lamplighter, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #29] [lmpltxxx.xxx]  927
May 1997 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, Gustavus Hindman Miller[drmntxxx.xxx]  926
May 1997 United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches      [uspisxxx.xxx]  925

May 1997 To Be Read At Dusk, by Charles Dickens[Dickens#28][rddskxxx.xxx]  924
May 1997 Life of Francis Marion #3, by William Dobein James[jjmarxxx.xxx]  923
May 1997 Sunday Under Three Heads by Charles Dickens[CD#27][suthsxxx.xxx]  922
May 1997 De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde  [Oscar Wilde #13]   [dprofxxx.xxx]  921

May 1997 Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza/Elwes Part 2 [#2]  [2spnexxx.xxx]  920
May 1997 Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza/Elwes Part 1 [#1]  [1spnexxx.xxx]  919
May 1997 Sketches of Young Gentlemen, by Dickens  [CD #26] [skygmxxx.xxx]  918
May 1997 Barnaby Rudge, 80's Riots, by Charles Dickens[#25][rudgexxx.xxx]  917

May 1997 Sketches of Young Couples, by Charles Dickens[#24][yngcpxxx.xxx]  916
May 1997 Library Work with Children, by Alice I. Hazeltine [lwwchxxx.xxx]  915
May 1997 The Uncommercial Traveller by Charles Dickens[#23][unctrxxx.xxx]  914
May 1997 A Hero of Our Time, by M. Y. Lermontov            [aheroxxx.xxx]  913

May 1997 Mudfog and Other Sketches, by Charles Dickens[#22][mdfogxxx.xxx]  912
May 1997 Tales of the Fish Patrol, by Jack London[London#8][totfpxxx.xxx]  911
White Fang, by Jack London                                                 910
The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone, by John Filson                     909

A Treatise on Parents and Children, by George Bernard Shaw                 908
May 1997 Flying Machine, by W.J. Jackman & Thos. H. Russell[flymcxxx.xxx]  907
May 1997 Abraham Lincoln, by James Russell Lowell[Lowell#2][1lncnxxx.xxx]  906
May 1997 Within the Law, by Marvin Dana from Bayard Veiller[wnlawxxx.xxx]  905

May 1997 Her Father's Daughter, by Gene Stratton-Porter[#7][hfdtrxxx.xxx]  904
May 1997 The White Company, by Arthur Conan Doyle[Doyle#12][whtcoxxx.xxx]  903
May 1997 The Happy Prince & Other Tales by Oscar Wilde[#12][hpaotxxx.xxx]  902
May 1997 The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe  [CM #3] [jmltaxxx.xxx]  901

May 1997 Decline/Fall Of The Roman Empire, by Gibbon, Folio[dfre310f.xxx]  900
   (NOTE:  in proprietary Folio .nfo format; Vol. 3 only.)
   (See also:  #890-895 for HTML format, #731-736 for plain text.)
*

Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet?

If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of
6,507,879,958 that would be 19,046 x 65,078,800 = ~1.24 Trillion !!!

With 19,046 eBooks online as of April 05, 2006 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.81 from each book.
[1% world population x #eBooks] 65,078,800 x 19,046 x $.81 = ~$1 Trillion
[Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.]

6,507,879,958
65,078,800




*

A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.53 Value Per Book To 100 Million

With 19,046 eBooks online as of April 05, 2006 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.53 from each book.
This "cost" is down from about $.63 when we had 15,946 eBooks a year ago.

Our Target Audience Is 1.5% Of The World Population = ~100,000,000 people.


At 19,046 eBooks in 34 Years and 09.00 Months We Averaged
       548 Per Year
        45.7 Per Month
         1.50 Per Day

At 901 eBooks Done In The 090 Days Of 2006 We Averaged
    10.0 Per Day
      69 Per Week
     300 Per Month


If you are interested in the population of the world or of the U.S.
you might want to know that these numbers, official as they appear,
are just just estimates, and perhaps not as accurate as we hope.

However, for those keeping track of how quickly the U.S. reaches a
300 million population level, and who noticed the passing of 298M,
just two weeks ago. . .the U.S. is already 1/6 the way to 299M, so
it will probably be 10 more weeks to 299M and 22 more to 300M.

Recently the U.S. Congress, pertaining to district reapportionment,
who gets to vote for which Congresspeople, decided that many of the
districts were undercounted by 5%, perhaps then later deciding that
all districts had been undercounted by 5% [can't recall details].

*

The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January.  January 4th was
the first Wednesday of 2006, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2005 and began the production year of 2006 at noon.

This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.

*

Odd Statistic

Today at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
. . .the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

*

By the way, for those interested, the official U.S. population
estimates just passed 298 million, though many say estimations
of this nature leave out as much as 5% of the population.

Still hoping for more statistical updates and additional entries.
[This one is getting a little out of date, as the US population
is obviously no longer 6% of the world.  In fact, rounding to the
nearest percent, the US will soon fall from 5% to 4%.]

"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same,
it would look something like the following. There would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South America
  8 Africans
  52 would be female
  48 would be male
  70 would be non-white
  30 would be white
  70 would be non-Christian
  30 would be Christian
   6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
   and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
  1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
  1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
  1 would own a computer [I think this is now much greater]
  1 would be 79 years old or more.

Of those born today, the life expectancy is only 63 years,
but no country any longer issues copyrights that are sure
to expire within that 63 year period.

I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.

I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.

If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.

I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.

BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.

This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge.  Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites.  Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security.  The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.

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pgweekly_2006_04_05_part_1b.txt

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