[Overview]
Conceived in October 2000 by Charles Franks, Distributed Proofreaders
was launched online in March 2001 to help in the digitization of public
domain books. The method is to break up the tedious work of checking
eBooks for errors into small, manageable chunks. Originally meant to
assist Project Gutenberg in the handling of shared proofreading,
Distributed Proofreaders has become the main source of Project
Gutenberg eBooks. In 2002, Distributed Proofreaders became an official
Project Gutenberg site. The number of books processed through
Distributed Proofreaders has grown fast. In 2003, about 250-300 people
were working each day all over the world producing a daily total of
2,500-3,000 pages, the equivalent of two pages a minute. In 2004, the
average was 300-400 proofreaders participating each day and finishing
4,000-7,000 pages per day, the equivalent of four pages a minute.
Distributed Proofreaders processed a total of 3,000 books in February
2004, 5,000 books in October 2004, 7,000 books in May 2005, 8,000 books
in February 2006 and 10,000 books in March 2007, with the help of
36,000 volunteers.
[In Depth (published in 2005, updated in 2008)]
The main "leap forward" of Project Gutenberg since 2000 is due to
Distributed Proofreaders. In 2002, Distributed Proofreaders became an
official Project Gutenberg site. In May 2006, Distributed Proofreaders
became a separate entity and continues to maintain a strong
relationship with Project Gutenberg.
Volunteers don't have a quota to fill, but it is recommended they do a
page a day if possible. It doesn't seem much, but with hundreds of
volunteers it really adds up. In December 2007, five books were
produced per day by thousands of volunteers.
From the website one can access a program that allows several
proofreaders to be working on the same book at the same time, each
proofreading different pages. This significantly speeds up the
proofreading process. Volunteers register and receive detailed
instructions. For example, words in bold, italic or underlined, or
footnotes are always treated the same way for any book. A discussion
forum allows them to ask questions or seek help at any time. A project
manager oversees the progress of a particular book through its
different steps on the website.
The website gives a full list of the books that are: (a) completed,
i.e. processed through the site and posted to Project Gutenberg; (b) in
progress, i.e. processed through the site but not yet posted, because
currently going through their final proofreading and assembly; (c)
being proofread, i.e. currently being processed. On August 3, 2005,
7,639 books were completed, 1,250 books were in progress and 831 books
were being proofread. On May 1st, 2008, 13,039 books were completed,
1,840 books were in progress and 1,000 books were being proofread.
Each time a volunteer (proofreader) goes to the website, s/he chooses a
book, any book. Then one page of the book appears in two forms side by
side: the scanned image of one page and the text from that image (as
produced by OCR software). The proofreader can easily compare both
versions, note the differences and fix them. OCR is usually 99%
accurate, which makes for about 10 corrections a page. The proofreader
saves each page as it is completed and can then either stop work or do
another. The books are proofread twice, and the second time only by
experienced proofreaders. All the pages of the book are then formatted,
combined and assembled by post-processors to make an eBook. The eBook
is now ready to be posted with an index entry (title, subtitle, author,
eBook number and character set) for the database. Indexers go on with
the cataloging process (author's dates of birth and death, Library of
Congress classification, etc.) after the release.
Volunteers can also work independently, after contacting Project
Gutenberg directly, by keying in a book they particularly like using
any text editor or word processor. They can also scan it and convert it
into text using OCR software, and then make corrections by comparing it
with the original. In each case, someone else will proofread it. They
can use ASCII and any other format. Everybody is welcome, whatever the
method and whatever the format.
New volunteers are most welcome too at Distributed Proofreaders (DP),
Distributed Proofreaders Europe (DP Europe) and Distributed
Proofreaders Canada (DPC). Any volunteer anywhere is welcome, for any
language. There is a lot to do. As stated on both websites, "Remember
that there is no commitment expected on this site. Proofread as often
or as seldom as you like, and as many or as few pages as you like. We
encourage people to do 'a page a day', but it's entirely up to you! We
hope you will join us in our mission of 'preserving the literary
history of the world in a freely available form for everyone to use'."