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Computers are ranking the world's important authors
Trying to rate the world's literary giants is tricky at best. Do you go by the number of books sold? The long-term cultural impact? If you're Dartmouth College researcher Allen Riddell, you make computers decide. As part of an effort to determine which books would be most valuable in the public domain, Riddell has developed an author ranking algorithm that determines the most important authors who died in a given year. The system ranks writers based on the age, length and popularity of their Wikipedia articles, along with the number of titles they have in the public domain. If an author gets a lot of attention but doesn't have many freely available works, that person climbs the charts and is more likely to have titles published on free literature sites like Project Gutenberg.
Editorial: Bring on the digital overthrow of publishing
Last week's release of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite offered an opportunity to look back on the rapid growth of e-reading, and look forward to what the digitization of publishing will mean to four major market forces: publishers, bookstores, authors and readers. As during any technological disruption, winners and losers trade fates until the upheaval settles and a new cycle of status quo begins. Amazon is not the only bookstore represented in the scramble for new-era survival, but its major role has multiple dimensions: seller, publisher, enabler, inventor and primary instigator of disruption. Amazon is banking on being a winner, and was recently handed an advantage by the U.S. government in its uneasy relationship with publishers. While industrial forces work their way through the dislocation of new paradigms, individuals -- both book consumers and book authors -- stand to be the biggest winners, and that is a good thing.
Austrian city builds public library with nothing but QR codes, NFC and stickers
Strangely, the Austrian city of Klagenfurt doesn't have a public library, even though it hosts the Festival of German-Language Literature. However, an initiative dubbed Project Ingeborg is turning the municipality into a book repository of sorts with 70 QR code and NFC chip-equipped stickers. Plastered throughout town, they direct users to web pages where they can download public domain works, largely from Project Gutenberg. Oftentimes, e-books will be located in relevant locations -- so you'll be sure to find Arthur Schnitzler's The Killer near the police station, for example. Come August, the team behind the effort will partner with local talent to distribute books, music and other digital content too. In an effort to build a stronger bond to the location, the organizers have prevented search engines from indexing the links, so you'll have to visit Klagenfurt to access the curated goods. If you'd like to turn your city into a library, the group hopes to release instructions for replicating their system soon. [Thanks, Michael]
Michael S. Hart, e-book inventor and Project Gutenberg founder, dies at 64
There's some sad news coming out of Illinois today, where Michael S. Hart, the e-book inventor who founded Project Gutenberg, has died at the age of 64. Hart's literary journey began in 1971, when he digitized and distributed his first text, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the Declaration of Independence he found at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That same year, the Tacoma, Washington native founded Project Gutenberg -- an online library that aims to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks" and to "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy." By 1987, he'd already digitized a total of 313 books, including works from Homer, Shakespeare and the Bible, before recruiting more volunteers to help out. As of this June, Hart's pioneering library housed about 36,000 works in its collection (most of which are in the public domain), with an average of 50 new books added each week. Described by Project Gutenberg as an "ardent technologist and futurist," Hart leaves a literary legacy perhaps best summed up in his own words. "One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air," he wrote in July. "Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job." Michael S. Hart is survived by his mother and brother.
Magic Catalog brings free books to your iBooks or Kindle collection
Most people know that there is a free Kindle app for iOS that will let you read books from Amazon's Kindle store. Apple also offers a free iBooks app. Fewer people have heard of Project Gutenberg, where you can download over 30,000 free books, and fewer still have heard of the Magic Catalog from FreeKindleBooks.org. The "Magic Catalog" isn't where Harry Potter shops -- it's a "book" containing nothing except links to other books. You can use the search feature of your favorite e-book reader to look for books; with a few taps, you can have the new book on your iOS device without ever needing to go through iTunes and without spending a penny. The easy way If you already have the iBooks or Kindle apps installed, simply go to Magic Catalog on your iOS device and tap the appropriate link for whichever app you are using (MOBI Edition for Kindle, EPUB Edition for iBooks). The slightly harder way If, for some reason, you'd prefer to download the books to your computer and transfer them to your iOS device (or if you already have .epub, .mobi, or other e-books on your computer), you can do so using iTunes. If you have the Kindle app installed, it will appear under the "File Sharing" section in the "apps" tab, and you can add books there. You may notice that iBooks does not appear in the "File Sharing" section. To transfer books to iBooks, simply drag to the "Library" section of your iTunes library (see this page at Apple.com for more details). Two minor flaws Kindle: When using the Magic Catalog with the Kindle app, you'll find one glitch in the process. When you tap on a book in the catalog, the Kindle app opens a blank page with an arrow at the top left. You have to tap on that arrow to open the page in Safari, which will then show you a link to open the book in the Kindle app. Then when you go back to the Kindle app, you have to tap the "Done" button on the top right in order to see the new book. It's a minor annoyance, at worst. Kindle and iBooks: When you are on the web page to download the book, you will not see the name of the book; you'll see something like "pg23.mobi" followed by the size and a button to open the book in the Kindle app (or iBooks if you have the EPUB version). Once you open the book in the appropriate application, it will show the correct name.
Kindle app now supports Project Gutenberg eBooks
If you've not already jumped on the eBook bandwagon, there's never been a better time to climb aboard. With apps like iBooks and Amazon's Kindle app, getting eBooks onto your favorite Apple device couldn't be easier -- especially now that Amazon has updated its Kindle app to support Project Gutenberg eBooks in version 2.5. Project Gutenberg "... is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today," according to Project Gutenberg's website. This means that the Kindle app now has access to over 33,000 free and out-of-copyright eBooks. On top of that, the app also supports access to "millions" of eBooks through the Internet Archive and other online sources, too. That's way more than a lifetime's worth of reading, for free! What else is new in update 2.5? Continue downloading books while the app is in the background on iOS 4 devices Improved image zoom New book indicator Bug fixes iBooks users can access Project Gutenberg eBooks, too. However, the process is slightly more laborious than that of the Kindle app's (here's a how-to guide). Plus, the Kindle app has a top free downloads chart as well as a paid one -- something the iBookstore lacks. The Kindle app is free on the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. If you're an avid eBook reader, why not share your favorite free or out-of-copyright eBooks in the comments below?
iPad roundup: New York Times and others get HTML5 video, iPad app store demo, and more
The momentum towards HTML5 and away from (or at least in parallel with) Flash seems to be accelerating with today's launch of the free Brightcove Experience framework for HTML5 -- a "way to publish, distribute, and monetize web video for the iPad and other Apple devices" according to the Brightcove press release. While Brightcove might not be a household name, some of its 1,000 customers, including Time Inc. and The New York Times (a Brightcove investor), certainly are -- both of whom are already using the new HTML5 solution in preparation for the iPad's April 3rd US launch. A real coup for the Flash-hating Steve Jobs if you start factoring in the rumored Flash-free NPR and Wall Street Journal iPad sites as well as that little HTML5 iPad test CBS was testing out in the open last week. Also rumored for launch is an iBookstore filled with 30,000 free e-Books courtesy of the Gutenberg Project. See the screengrab evidence after the break in addition to a purported video walkthrough of the iPad store. The video previews several new "HD" formatted iPad apps that we've already seen as well as a few new ones like Twitterific. Sorry, still no Hulu HD. The mouse pointer in the video, however, makes it clear that this is running on desktop somewhere, not on an iPad. Still, it definitely looks the part.
