Copyright © 2010 Marie Lebert
—-A trilingual ebook to celebratethe 40 years (1971-2011)of Project Gutenberg,born on July 4, 1971,with celebrationsduring the whole year 2011.
—-Un ebook trilingüe para celebrarlos 40 años (1971-2011)del Proyecto Gutenberg,nacido el 4 de julio de 1971,con celebracionesdurante todo el año 2011.
—-Un ebook trilingue pour célébrerles 40 ans (1971-2011)du Projet Gutenberg,né le 4 juillet 1971,avec des célébrationspendant toute l'année 2011.
—-
TABLE OF CONTENTS / ÍNDICE / TABLE
[en] Overview[es] Sumario[fr] Sommaire
[en] Project Gutenberg is 40 years old[es] El Proyecto Gutenberg tiene 40 años[fr] Le Projet Gutenberg a 40 ans
[en] From the past to the future[es] Desde el pasado hacia el futuro[fr] Du passé vers l'avenir
[en] Project Gutenberg and languages[es] El Proyecto Gutenberg y los idiomas[fr] Le Projet Gutenberg et les langues
[en] Distributed Proofreaders is 10 years old[es] Distributed Proofreaders tiene 10 años[fr] Distributed Proofreaders a 10 ans
[en] Acknowledgements[es] Agradecimientos[fr] Remerciements OVERVIEW [EN]
The first ebook was available on July 4, 1971, as eText #1 of ProjectGutenberg, a visionary project launched by Michael Hart to create freeelectronic versions of literary works and disseminate them worldwide.In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for asmall cost. In the 21st century, Project Gutenberg would allow anyoneto have a digital library at no cost. Project Gutenberg got its firstboost with the invention of the web in 1990, and its second boost withthe creation of Distributed Proofreaders in 2000, to share theproofreading of ebooks between hundreds of volunteers. In 2010, ProjectGutenberg offered more than 33,000 high-quality ebooks being downloadedby the tens of thousands every day, and websites in the United States,in Australia, in Europe, and in Canada, with 40 mirror sites worldwide.
This trilingual (English, Spanish, French) ebook is meant to celebratethe 40th anniversary of Project Gutenberg, with four parts:# Project Gutenberg is 40 years old# From the past to the future# Project Gutenberg and languages# Distributed Proofreaders is 10 years old About the author > Marie Lebert is a researcher and journalistspecializing in technology for books and languages. Her books arefreely available in Project Gutenberg <www.gutenberg.org> and inManyBooks.net <http://manybooks.net>, in various formats for anyelectronic device (computer, PDA, mobile phone, smartphone, ebookreader).
SUMARIO [ES]
El primer libro digital remonta al 4 de julio de 1971. Se trata deleText #1 del Proyecto Gutenberg, un proyecto visionario lanzado porMichael Hart con el fin de crear versiones electrónicas gratuitas deobras literarias y de difundirlas por el mundo entero. En el siglo 16,Gutenberg había hecho posible para todos tener libros impresos por unprecio relativamente módico. En el siglo 21, el Proyecto Gutenberg ibaa permitir a cada uno disponer de una biblioteca digital gratuita. Esteproyecto cobra nuevo aliento y alcanzó una difusión internacional conla aparición de la web en 1990, y luego con la creación de DistributedProofreaders en 2000, cuya meta es compartir la revisión de los librosentre centenares de voluntarios. En 2010, el Proyecto Gutenberg cuentacon más de 33.000 ebooks de alta calidad y decenas de milles dedescargas al día. Tiene sitios web en los Estados Unidos, en Australia,en Europa y en Canadá, con 40 sitios espejo repartidos por todo elplaneta.
Este ebook trilingüe (inglés, español, francés) tiene como metacelebrar los 40 años del Proyecto Gutenberg, con quatro partes:# El Proyecto Gutenberg tiene 40 años# Desde el pasado hacia el futuro# El Proyecto Gutenberg y los idiomas# Distributed Proofreaders tiene 10 años Sobre la autora > Marie Lebert, investigadora y periodista, se interesapor las tecnologías para el libro y los idiomas. Sus libros estándisponibles gratuitamente en el Proyecto Gutenberg <www.gutenberg.org>y en ManyBooks.net <http://manybooks.net>, en varios formatos paralectura en un ordenador, un PDA, un teléfono móvil, un smartphone o unatableta. Muchas gracias a Anna Álvarez por su ayuda para varios textosen español.
SOMMAIRE [FR]
Le premier livre numérique date du 4 juillet 1971. Il s'agit de l'eText#1 du Projet Gutenberg, un projet visionnaire lancé par Michael Hartpour créer des versions électroniques gratuites d'oeuvres littéraireset les diffuser dans le monde entier. Au 16e siècle, Gutenberg avaitpermis à chacun d'avoir des livres imprimés pour un prix relativementmodique. Au 21e siècle, le Projet Gutenberg permettrait à chacund'avoir une bibliothèque numérique gratuite. Ce projet trouve un secondsouffle et un rayonnement international avec l'apparition du web en1990, puis la création de Distributed Proofreaders en 2000 pourpartager la relecture des livres entre des centaines de volontaires. En2010, le Projet Gutenberg compte plus de 33.000 ebooks de grandequalité ainsi que des dizaines de milliers de téléchargements par jour.Il dispose de sites web aux États-Unis, en Australie, en Europe et auCanada, avec 40 sites miroirs répartis sur toute la planète.
Cet ebook trilingue (anglais, espagnol, français) a pour but decélébrer les 40 ans du Projet Gutenberg, avec quatre parties:# Le Projet Gutenberg a 40 ans# Du passé vers l'avenir# Le Projet Gutenberg et les langues#
Distributed Proofreaders a 10 ans
Au sujet de l'auteure > Marie Lebert, chercheuse et journaliste,s'intéresse aux technologies pour le livre et les langues. Ses livressont librement disponibles dans le Projet Gutenberg <www.gutenberg.org>et dans ManyBooks.net <http://manybooks.net>, dans divers formatspermettant leur lecture sur tout appareil électronique (ordinateur,PDA, téléphone mobile, smartphone et tablette).
PROJECT GUTENBERG IS 40 YEARS OLD [EN]
In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for asmall cost. In the 21st century, Project Gutenberg would allow anyoneto have a digital library at no cost.
# Beginning
As recalled by Michael Hart in January 2009 in an email interview: ―OnJuly 4, 1971, while still a freshman at the University of Illinois(UI), I decided to spend the night at the Xerox Sigma V mainframe atthe UI Materials Research Lab, rather than walk miles home in thesummer heat, only to come back hours later to start another day ofschool. I stopped on the way to do a little grocery shopping to getthrough the night, and day, and along with the groceries they put inthe faux parchment copy of The U.S. Declaration of Independence thatbecame quite literally the cornerstone of Project Gutenberg. Thatnight, as it turned out, I received my first computer account – I hadbeen hitchhiking on my brother‘s best friend‘s name, who ran thecomputer on the night shift. When I got a first look at the huge amountof computer money I was given, I decided I had to do somethingextremely worthwhile to do justice to what I had been given. This wassuch a serious, and intense thought process for a college freshman, myfirst thought was that I had better eat something to get up enoughenergy to think of something worthwhile enough to repay the cost of allthat computer time. As I emptied out groceries, the faux parchmentDeclaration of Independence fell out, and the light literally went onover my head like in the cartoons and comics… I knew what the futureof computing, and the internet, was going to be… ‗The InformationAge.‘ The rest, as they say, is history.‖
Michael keyed in The United States Declaration of Independence to themainframe he was using, in upper case, because there was no lower caseyet. The file was 5 K. To send a 5 K file to the 100 users of the pre-internet of the time would have crashed the network, so Michaelmentioned where the etext was stored -
though without a hypertext link,because the web was still 20 years ahead. It was downloaded by sixusers.
Project Gutenberg was born.
Michael decided to use the huge amount of computer time he had beengiven to search the literary works that were stored in libraries, andto digitize these works. A book would become a continuous text fileinstead of a set of pages. Project Gutenberg‘s mission would be thefollowing: to put at everyone‘s disposal, in electronic versions, asmany literary works as possible for free.
After keying in The United States Declaration of Independence (signedon July 4, 1776) in 1971, Michael typed in a longer text, The UnitedStates Bill of Rights, in 1972, i.e. the first ten amendments added in1789
to the Constitution (dated 1787) and defining the individualrights of the citizens and the distinct powers of the federalgovernment and the States. A volunteer typed in The United StatesConstitution in 1973.
From one year to the next, disk space was getting larger, by thestandards of the time – there was no hard disk yet -, making itpossible to store larger files.
Volunteers began typing in The Bible, with one individual book at atime, and a file for each book.
Michael typed in the collected works of Shakespeare, with volunteers,one play at a time, and a file for each play. This edition ofShakespeare was never released, unfortunately, due to changes incopyright law.
Shakespeare‘s works belong to public domain, butcomments and notes may be copyrighted, depending on the publicationdate. Other editions of Shakespeare from public domain were released afew years later.
# 10 to 1,000 ebooks
Its critics long considered Project Gutenberg as impossible on a largescale. But Michael went on keying book after book during many years,with the help of some volunteers.
In August 1989, Project Gutenberg completed its 10th ebook, The KingJames Bible (1769), both testaments, and 5M for all files.
In 1990, there were 250,000 internet users. The web was in its infancy.
The standard was 360 K disks.
In January 1991, Michael typed in Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland(1865), by Lewis Carroll. In July 1991, he typed in Peter Pan (1904),by James M. Barrie. These two classics of childhood literature each fiton one disk.
The first browser, Mosaic, was released in November 1993. It becameeasier to circulate etexts and recruit volunteers. From 1991 to 1996,the number of ebooks doubled every year, with one ebook per month in1991, two ebooks per month in 1992, four ebooks per month in 1993, andeight ebooks per month in 1994.
In January 1994, Project Gutenberg released The Complete Works ofWilliam Shakespeare as eBook #100.
Shakespeare wrote most of his worksbetween 1590 and 1613.
The steady growth went on, with an average of 8 ebooks per month in1994, 16 ebooks per month in 1995, and 32 ebooks per month in 1996.
In June 1997, Project Gutenberg released The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), by Howard Pyle.
Project Gutenberg reached 1,000 ebooks in August 1997. EBook #1000 wasLa Divina Commedia (1321), by Dante Alighieri, in Italian, its originallanguage.
With the number of ebooks on the rise, three main sections were set up:(a) ―Light Literature‖, such as Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland,Through the Looking-Glass, Peter Pan and Aesop‘s Fables; (b)
―HeavyLiterature‖, such as the Bible, Shakespeare‘s works, Moby Dick andParadise Lost; (c) ―Reference Literature‖, such as Roget‘s Thesaurus,almanacs, and a set of encyclopedias and dictionaries. (A more detailedclassification was created later on.)
―Light Literature‖ was the main section in number of ebooks. Asexplained on the website in 1998: ―The Light Literature Collection isdesigned to get persons to the computer in the first place, whether theperson may be a pre-schooler or a great-grandparent. We love it when wehear about kids or grandparents taking each other to an etext of PeterPan when they come back from watching Hook at the movies, or when theyread Alice in Wonderland after seeing it on TV. We have also been toldthat nearly every Star Trek movie has quoted current Project Gutenbergetext releases (from Moby Dick in The Wrath of Khan; a Peter Pan quotefinishing up the most recent, etc.) not to mention a reference toThrough the Looking-Glass in JFK. This was a primary concern when wechose the books for our libraries. We want people to be able to look upquotations they heard in conversation, movies, music, other books,easily with a library containing all these quotations in an easy-to-find etext format.‖
Project Gutenberg's goal is more about selecting books intended for thegeneral public than providing authoritative editions. As explained onthe website in 1998: ―We do not write for the reader who cares whethera certain phrase in Shakespeare has a ‗:‘ or a ‗;‘ between its clauses.We put our sights on a goal to release etexts that are 99.9% accuratein the eyes of the general reader. Given the preferences ourproofreaders have, and the general lack of reading ability the publicis currently reported to have, we probably exceed those requirements bya significant amount. However, for the person who wants an‗authoritative edition‘ we will have to wait some time until thisbecomes more feasible. We do, however, intend to release many editionsof Shakespeare and the other classics for comparative study on ascholarly level.‖
The etexts, later called ebooks, were stored in the simplest way, usingthe low set of ASCII, called Plain Vanilla ASCII, for them to be readon any hardware and software. As a text file, a book could be easilycopied, indexed, searched, analyzed, and compared with other books.
As explained by Michael Hart in August 1998 in an email interview: ―Weconsider etext to be a new medium, with no real relationship to paper,other than presenting the same material, but I don‘t see how paper canpossibly compete once people each find their own comfortable way toetexts, especially in schools. (…) My own personal goal is to put10,000 etexts on the net [this goal was reached in October 2003] and ifI can get some major support, I would like to expand that to 1,000,000and to also expand our potential audience for the average etext from1.x% of the world population to over 10%, thus changing our goal fromgiving away 1,000,000,000,000 etexts to 1,000 times as many, a trillionand a quadrillion in U.S.
terminology.‖
# 1,000 to 10,000 ebooks
From 1998 to 2000, the ―output‖ was an average of 36 new ebooks permonth.
Project Gutenberg reached 2,000 ebooks in May 1999. EBook #2000 was DonQuijote (1605), by Cervantes, in Spanish, its original language.
Distributed Proofreaders was launched in October 2000 by Charles Franksto share the proofreading of ebooks between many volunteers. Volunteerschoose one of the digitized books available on the website andproofread a given page, or several pages, as they wish.
Project Gutenberg reached 3,000 ebooks in December 2000. EBook #3000was À l‘ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (In the Shadow of Young Girlsin Flower), vol. 3 (1919), by Marcel Proust, in French, its originallanguage.
Project Gutenberg Australia was launched in August 2001.
Project Gutenberg reached 4,000 ebooks in October 2001. EBook #4000 wasThe French Immortals Series (1905), in English. This book is ananthology of short fictions by authors from the French Academy(Académie Française): Emile Souvestre, Pierre Loti, Hector Malot,Charles de Bernard, Alphonse Daudet, and others.
The output in 2001 was an average of 104 new ebooks per month.
Project Gutenberg reached 5,000 ebooks in April 2002. EBook #5000 wasThe Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, an English version of Leonardo'searly 16th-century writings in Italian. Since its release, this ebookhas constantly stayed in the Top 100 of downloaded ebooks.
In 1991, Michael Hart chose to type in Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderlandand Peter Pan because they would each fit on one 360 K disk, thestandard of the time. In 2002, the standard disk was 1.44 M and couldbe compressed as a zipped file.
A practical file size is about 3 million characters, more than longenough for the average book. The ASCII version of a 300-page novel is 1M. A bulky book can fit in two ASCII files, that can be downloaded asis or zipped. An average of 50 hours is necessary to get an ebookselected, copyright-cleared, scanned, proofread, formatted, andassembled.
A few numbers are reserved for ―special‖ books. For example, eBook#1984 is reserved for George Orwell‘s classic, published in 1949, andstill a long way from falling into public domain.
In spring 2002, Project Gutenberg‘s ebooks represented 25% of all thepublic domain works freely available on the web and listed in theInternet Public Library (IPL). The output in 2002 was an average of 203new ebooks per month.
In November 2002, Project Gutenberg released the 75 files of the HumanGenome Project, with files of dozens or hundreds of megabytes, shortlyafter its initial release in February 2001 as a work from publicdomain.
1,000 ebooks in August 1997, 2,000 ebooks in May 1999, 3,000 ebooks inDecember 2000, 4,000 ebooks in October 2001, 5,000 ebooks in April2002, 10,000 ebooks in October 2003. EBook #10000 was The Magna Carta,signed in 1215 and known as the first English constitutional text.
From April 2002 to October 2003, in 18 months, the collection of ebooksdoubled, going from 5,000 ebooks to 10,000 ebooks, with a monthlyaverage of 348 new ebooks in 2003. The fast growth was the work ofDistributed Proofreaders, a website launched in October 2000 to sharethe proofreading of ebooks between many volunteers.
EBooks were also copied on CDs and DVDs. As blank CDs and DVDs costnext to nothing, Project Gutenberg began burning and sending a free CDor DVD to anyone asking for it. People were encouraged to make copiesfor a friend, a library or a school. Released in August 2003, the Bestof Gutenberg CD
contained 600 ebooks. The first Project Gutenberg DVDwas released in December 2003 to celebrate the first 10,000 ebooks,with the burning of most titles (9,400 ebooks).
In September 2003, Project Gutenberg launched Project Gutenberg Audio eBooks, a collection of human-read ebooks, as well as the Sheet Music Subproject, a collection of digitized music sheet and music recordings.
A collection of still and moving pictures was also available.
# 10,000 to 20,000 ebooks
In December 2003, there were 11,000 ebooks, which represented 110 G, inseveral formats (ASCII, HTML, PDF, and others, as is or zipped). In May2004, there were 12,600 ebooks, which represented 135 G. With more than300 new ebooks added per month (338 ebooks per month in 2004), thenumber of gigabytes was expected to double every year.
The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center (PGCC) was affiliated withProject Gutenberg in 2003, and became an official Project Gutenbergsite. Since 1997, PGCC had been working on gathering collections ofexisting ebooks, as a complement to Project Gutenberg working onproducing ebooks. As explained by Michael Hart in February 2009: ―TheProject Gutenberg Consortia Center has over 75,000 ebooks rendered asPDF files, and some are really quite stunning. The difference? Thesefiles were prepared by other eLibraries, not Project Gutenberg, and areusing our worldwide distribution network to be seen.‖
In Europe, Project Rastko, based in Belgrade, Serbia, launched Project Gutenberg Europe (PG Europe) and Distributed Proofreaders Europe (DP
Europe) in January 2004. 100 ebooks were available in June 2005, in several languages, as a reflection of European linguistic diversity.
In January 2005, Project Gutenberg reached 15,000 ebooks. EBook #15000was The Life of Reason (1906), by George Santayana.
What about languages? There were ebooks in 25 languages in February2004, and in 42 languages in July 2005, including Sanskrit and theMayan languages. The seven main languages – with more than 50 ebooks
–were English (with 14,548 ebooks on July 27, 2005), French (577ebooks), German (349 ebooks), Finnish (218 ebooks), Dutch (130 ebooks),Spanish (103 ebooks), and Chinese (69 ebooks).
In July 2005, Project Gutenberg Australia (launched in August 2001)reached 500 ebooks.
Project Gutenberg PrePrints was launched in January 2006 to collectitems submitted to Project Gutenberg which were interesting enough tobe available online, but not ready yet to be added to the main ProjectGutenberg collection, because of missing data, low-quality files,formats which were not handy, etc.
379 ebooks were available inDecember 2006, and 2,020 ebooks in February 2009.
In December 2006, Project Gutenberg reached 20,000 ebooks. EBook #20000was the audiobook of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Vingt millelieues sous les mers, 1869), by Jules Verne, in its English version.
If 32 years and 3 months, from July 1971 to October 2003, werenecessary to produce the first 10,000
ebooks, 3 years and 2 months,from October 2003 to December 2006, were necessary to produce thefollowing 10,000 ebooks. There were ebooks in 50 languages in December2006.
# 20,000 to 30,000 ebooks
In December 2006, Mike Cook launched the blog Project Gutenberg News as―the news portal for gutenberg.org‖, to complement the existing weeklyand monthly newsletters. For example, the blog gave a table of theweekly, monthly and yearly production numbers since 2001.
The weekly production was 24 ebooks in 2001, 47 ebooks in 2002, 79ebooks in 2003, 78 ebooks in 2004, 58 ebooks in 2005, and 80 ebooks in2006.
The monthly production was 104 ebooks in 2001, 203 ebooks in 2002, 348ebooks in 2003, 338 ebooks in 2004, 252 ebooks in 2005, and 345 ebooksin 2006.
The yearly production was 1,244 ebooks in 2001, 2,432 ebooks in 2002,4,176 ebooks in 2003, 4,058
ebooks in 2004, 3,019 ebooks in 2005, and4,141 ebooks in 2006.
Project Gutenberg Australia reached 1,500 ebooks in April 2007.
Project Gutenberg Canada (PGC) was launched on July 1st, 2007, on Canada Day, by Michael Shepard and David Jones. Distributed Proofreaders Canada (DPC) started production in December 2007. There were 100 ebooks in March 2008, in English, French, and Italian.
Project Gutenberg sent out 15 million ebooks via CDs and DVDs by snailmail in 2007. The latest DVD
(released in July 2006) included 17,000ebooks. CD and DVD files were also generated as ISO files (since 2005)to be downloaded for burning CDs or DVDs.
Project Gutenberg reached 25,000 books in April 2008. EBook #25000 wasEnglish Book Collectors (1902), by William Younger Fletcher.
Project Gutenberg reached 30,000 books in October 2009. EBook #30000was The Bird Book (1915), by Chester Albert Reed.
# 30,000 ebooks onwards
Distributed Proofreaders celebrated its 10th anniversary in October2010, with more than 18,000 books digitized and proofread during tenyears by thousands of volunteeers.
Project Gutenberg offered more than 33,000 high-quality proofreadebooks in December 2010, in various formats for any electronic device(computer, PDA, mobile phone, smartphone, and ebook reader).
EL PROYECTO GUTENBERG TIENE 40 AÑOS [ES]
En el siglo 16, Gutenberg había hecho posible para todos tener librosimpresos por un precio relativamente módico. En el siglo 21, elProyecto Gutenberg iba a permitir a cada uno disponer de una bibliotecadigital gratuita.
# Gestación
¿Cuáles son las raíces del proyecto? Cuando Michael Hart estudia en laUniversidad de Illinois (Estados Unidos), el laboratorio informático desu universidad le asigna millones de dólares de tiempo de ordenador.
El 4 de julio de 1971, día de la fiesta nacional, Michael digita TheUnited States Declaration of Independence (Declaración de independenciade los Estados Unidos), en mayúsculas, pues las letras minúsculas aúnno existan. El texto electrónico representa 5 K (kilobytes).
El envío de un archivo de 5 K a las cien personas que forman el pre-internet de la época haya acabado con el sistema, provocando suimplosión, porque el ancho de banda aún es ínfimo.
Michael difunde un mensaje que explica dónde se almacena el texto – aúnsin enlace hipertexto, pues habría que esperar unos 20 años más para laweb – y seis personas descargan este archivo.
Sobre la marcha, Michael decide dedicar ese enorme crédito de tiempo ala búsqueda de obras literarias disponibles en bibliotecas, y a ladigitalización de éstas. El conjunto de páginas encuadernadas, formatradicional del libro, iba a convertirse en un texto electrónico que sepuede desplegar de par en par.
Poco después, Michael define así la misión del Proyecto Gutenberg:poner a disposición de todos, por vía electrónica, el mayor númeroposible de obras literarias gratuitamente.
Tras haber digitado The United States Declaration of Independence(Declaración de independencia de los Estados Unidos, firmada el 4 dejulio de 1776) en 1971, Michael prosigue con sus esfuerzos en 1972digitando The United States Bill of Rights (Declaración de derechos delos Estados Unidos). Esa declaración incluye las diez primerasenmiendas añadidas en 1789 a la Constitución de los Estados Unidos(ratificada en 1787), y define los derechos individuales de losciudadanos y los poderes respectivos del gobierno federal y de losEstados. En 1973, un voluntario digita The United States Constitution(Constitución de losEstados Unidos) en su totalidad.
El internet, aún embrionario en 1971, despega verdaderamente en 1974,tras la creación del protocolo TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol /Internet Protocol).
Año tras año, la capacidad del disquete aumenta con regularidad – eldisco duro no existe aún – de modo que los archivos pueden ocupar cadavez más espacio. Algunos voluntarios se animan a digitalizar La Biblia,compuesta de varios libros, cada cual puede tratarse por separado yocupar un archivo diferente.
Michael también empieza a digitar la obra completa de Shakespeare, conla ayuda de voluntarios, una obra de teatro tras otra, cada una en unarchivo. De hecho aquella edición nunca se puede poner en línea, debidoa que, entre tanto, entra en vigor una ley de copyright más rigurosa,ya no destinada a proteger el texto de Shakespeare, pasado desde hacetiempo al dominio público, sino los comentarios y notas de aquellaedición.
Otras ediciones anotadas que sí han pasado al dominio públicose ponen en línea algunos años más tarde.
# De 10 a 1.000 ebooks
En agosto de 1989, el Proyecto Gutenberg pone en línea su décimo texto,The King James Bible, una biblia publicada por primera vez en 1611 ycuya versión más conocida es la de 1769. El conjunto de los archivosdel Antiguo Testamento y del Nuevo Testamento representa 5 M(megabytes).
En 1990, ya hay 250.000 internautas, y el modelo estándar vigente es eldisquete de 360 K (kilobytes).
En enero de 1991, Michael digita Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland(Alicia en el país de las maravillas, 1865) de Lewis Carroll. En juliodel mismo año, digita Peter Pan (1904) de James M. Barrie. Cada uno deestos dos clásicos de la literatura infantil cabe en un disqueteestándar.
Luego llega la web, operativa a partir de 1991. El primer navegador,Mosaic, aparece en noviembre de 1993. Al generalizarse el acceso a lared, resulta más fácil hacer circular los textos electrónicos yreclutar voluntarios.
El Proyecto Gutenberg perfecciona su método de trabajo, y logradigitalizar un texto al mes en 1991, dos textos al mes en 1992, cuatrotextos al mes en 1993 y ocho textos al mes en 1994.
En enero de 1994, el Proyecto Gutenberg celebra su eBook #100 con lapuesta en línea de The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (La obracompleta de William Shakespeare). Shakespeare escribió la mayor partede su obra entre 1590 y 1613.
A continuación la producción sigue aumentando, con una media de 8ebooks al mes en 1994, 16 ebooks al mes en 1995 y 32 ebooks al mes en1996.
Entre 1991 y 1996, la producción se ha duplicado cada año. Mientrassigue con la digitalización de los libros, Michael coordina también apartir de entonces el trabajo de decenas de voluntarios.
En 1997, la producción sigue siendo de 32 ebooks al mes. En junio de1997, el Proyecto Gutenberg pone en línea The Merry Adventures of RobinHood (Las alegres aventuras de Robin Hood, 1883) de Howard Pyle.
Enagosto de 1997, se pone en línea el eBook #1000, La Divina Commedia (LaDivina Comedia, 1321) de Dante Alighieri, en su idioma original, elitaliano.
El Proyecto Gutenberg se articula en torno a tres grandes sectores: (a)―Light Literature‖(literatura de entretenimiento), que incluye porejemplo Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland (Las aventuras de Alicia en elpaís de las maravillas), Peter Pan o Aesop‘s Fables (Las Fábulas deEsopo); (b) ―Heavy Literature‖
(literatura ―seria‖), que incluye porejemplo La Biblia, las obras de Shakespeare o Moby Dick; (c)
―ReferenceLiterature‖ (literatura de referencia), que reúne enciclopedias ydiccionarios, por ejemplo el Roget‘s Thesaurus. Más adelante, estapresentación en tres sectores es sust