From: rzhu@math.uwaterloo.ca (Rupert Zhu)
Subject: FYI: The Online Book Initiative (OBI)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 21:14:51 GMT


              THE ONLINE BOOK INITIATIVE*

                   Barry Shein
               Software Tool & Die
                bzs@world.std.com


The Online Book Initiative has been formed to make available freely
redistributable collections of information. There exists huge
collections of books, conference proceedings, reference material,
catalogues, etc. which can be freely shared. Some of it is in
machine-readable form, much of it isn't.

The purpose of the Online Book Initiative is to create a publicly
accessible repository for this information, a net-worker's library.

Information in the Online Book Repository will be available for free
redistribution. On-line access, magnetic media and other methods of
distribution will involve reasonable charges for the services
provided, not the information.

There are other organizations with similar overall goals (e.g. Project
Gutenberg, Common Knowledge), in some cases the details of their goals
or approaches are quite different. We are in contact with most of them
and in general our conversations are very positive. Anyone putting
textual information on-line soon develops an attitude of "the more,
the merrier", it's a massive area of endeavor.

WHAT WE WISH TO ARCHIVE

All on-line materials (other than software collections) such as books,
journals, catalogues, conference proceedings, magazines, manuals,
maps, images, technical documentation, reference works, etc. The only
software we are interested in is software specific to the viewing,
manipulation, searching and maintenance of information in the
repository.

Materials must be free of copyrights limiting redistribution by us or
any individual or organization who receives them. This is primarily
because we have no idea how to achieve our goals using copyrightable
materials.

We also need pointers to collections of materials which may be
available. For example, there are government collections of
interesting data which are available at reasonable costs and do not
limit further redistribution of copies obtained.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

Beyond machine-readable material there are huge collections of printed
material which could be redistributed if put on-line. We need people
willing to organize informal projects to scan, type or otherwise get
this material on-line for inclusion in the Online Book Repository.

We need to get in touch with Library and Information Scientists
interested in helping us create formats and structures for organizing
the repository.

We need international participation to help ensure our efforts are
useful to people everywhere.

We need people willing to participate in a Technical Advisory Board to
help us guide our efforts.

We need involvement from academia, industry and governments to help us
enrich this effort without bounds and make available a first-rate,
freely available information utility.

We need involvement from publishers who have materials which can be
included in the Online Book Repository. Many books and reference works
become unprofitable to publish by ordinary paper means. It's time to
make these materials available!

We need involvement from the technical community to choose and
implement multi-media software standards such as hypertext, mark-up
languages, index and catalogue software, text retrieval, network
access methods and more. Standards are critical to our efforts.

WHAT WE ARE OFFERING

WORLD.STD.COM is a public access UNIX system which will serve as the
initial repository. It is a Sun4/280 system and will be expanded as
needed.

Anyone can dial into the system and set up an account if they wish
direct access (617-739-WRLD.) Accounts are charged and proceeds will
be used to build the Online Book Repository.

UUCP and other links will be available for the redistribution of
collections. We will also make collections available on magnetic media
for reasonable copying charges.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

If you think you can help or want more information send electronic
mail to:

                obi@world.std.com
There are two mailing lists, one for general discussion about OBI
issues and another which receives announcements only (the general
discussion list will see all announcements so you only need to be on
one.) To subscribe to either, mail a request to:

               obi-request@world.std.com

Or call us at Software Tool & Die, 617-739-0202.

Or drop by our office and chat if you're in the area: 1330 Beacon
Street, Brookline, MA 02146.

POSTSCRIPT

This started as an informal discussion group which called themselves
"The KiloMonkeys Project" (``Strong Typing For Weak Minds'') who
wanted to figure out how to get useful materials on-line and generally
available. I have decided to make Software Tool & Die a home for this
activity and formalize the project under the new name "The Online Book
Initiative." My thanks to that original group from Monkey Shein.

* "The Online Book Initiative" is a trademark of Software Tool & Die,
Inc.


 

Newsgroups: soc.culture.china