13 ms·

GITenberg is an open source community for publishing ebooks in the public domain

214 points by bilinualcom 6y ago

koolba 6y ago
They’re probably going to have to change their name to something that does not have “git” in it: https://public-inbox.org/git/20170202022655.2jwvudhvo4hmueaw@sigill.intra.peff.net/ https://public-inbox.org/git/20170202022655.2jwvudhvo4hmueaw...
- bhickey 6y ago
  > It's hard to hold them responsible for picking a name that violated a policy that didn't yet exist. fwiw, Gitenberg has been around at least since 2012.
- metiscus 6y ago
  They've been named like that for six years apparently so I'm not sure how that works for what you linked above. It is a valid point that hopefully doesn't cause problems.
- sethish 6y ago
  Gitenberg was one of the alternate spellings of Gutenberg in the 1400s.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    I propose Gytenberg
    - artiszt 6y ago
      or, widely accepted standard [in german and slavic-languages] way back then, 'v' instead of 'u', and vice versa
      - agumonkey 6y ago
        ah well for some reason the visual asthetics of gytenberg vs gvtenberg made me chose the former (even though at first I typed gvtenberg)
hnarayanan 6y ago
I don't know why, but I expected some amazing typography in their PDFs. :(
- sethish 6y ago
  [Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/) has accomplished a lot in producing better ebooks of public domain texts.
  - bilinualcom 6y ago
    OP here, it seems standardebooks doesn't provide the books in PDF format. My side project, https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com rebuild the ebooks in PDF format with translation hints, if you don't mind about learning a new language while reading your favourite books ;)
    - sethish 6y ago
      There are about 400 GITenberg books that have CC-by licensed covers provided by Recovering the Classics. If you're interested in using that art for your PDFs I can find you the index!
      - bilinualcom 6y ago
        Thanks, it would be great. I am curious to know why do they have CC license and not public domain?
        robin_reala 6y ago
        We have this problem with Standard Ebooks. The number of people that say things are public domain without actually checking it is very high. A CC0 licence is an explicit grant of public domain status by the licensor, and hence the legal issues rest with them in the event of any problem. Public domain obviously can be ascertained, but if CC0 hasn’t been granted we rely on dated reproductions: basically a photograph of the artwork in question in a book or journal with a copyright date of 1924 or earlier. (that’s obviously specifically a US legal reading, but SE from a legal point of view is a US project)
maire 6y ago
This looks like a subset of Project Gutenberg? The Girl from Alsace in Gitenberg: https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926 https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926 The Girl from Alsace in Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926 The numbers are even the same which seems suspicious. Hmmm.
- bhickey 6y ago
  It's a version controlled dump of Gutenberg.
- chmod775 6y ago
  "GITenberg is an exploration of how Project Gutenberg might work if all the Gutenberg texts were on Github, so that tools like version control, continuous integration, and pull-request workflow could be employed." https://ebookfoundation.org/ https://ebookfoundation.org/
- sethish 6y ago
  Yes, absolutely. Apologies if that's not clear from the website. GITenberg started as an experimental fork of PG, but due to the work of Eric Hellman at the Free Ebook Foundation, much of the infrastructure such as metadata formats, CI/CD for building books, and DVCS backend are being ported upstream to the Project Gutenberg infrastructure.
  - maire 6y ago
    Thanks for the clarification!
    - bilinualcom 6y ago
      OP here, I doubt that the website is "a SUBSET of Project Gutenberg". This is not mentioned anywhere in the website. As mentioned in PG website, while you can use the book freely, "The name 'Project Gutenberg' is a registered trademark.". I guess this is the reason they didn't mention PG.
gravitas 6y ago
The https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/ project has been rebuilding ebooks (open ePUB format) with an eye on quality and readability on mobiles/tablets (fonts, copyedit, etc.) which might be of interest, all books and the website revision are tracked in git.
- sethish 6y ago
  I'm a big fan of standardebooks! They're doing fantastic work producing better ebooks from Project Gutenberg sources.
  - bilinualcom 6y ago
    OP here, I found this website when I was looking for a way to get the updated version (with correction) of a PG (Project Gutenberg) book and all changes/diffs from the point that I scrape the book from PG website for my language learning side project: https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com The bilinual Project also rebuild ebooks (modern HTML, PDF and open ePUB format) with better quality and readability( while it is not its prime goal). Take a look at one example here: https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23 https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23 https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.pdf https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.pdf https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.epub https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.epub
    - yesenadam 6y ago
      Wow, they look awesome, thank you! (Learning spanish here)
      - yesenadam 6y ago
        Looking at Unamuno's Abel Sanchez.. 'hermanos' is translated 'brethren' - super-archaic. p8, 'dedicado' in 'te has dedicado a pintar?' is translated 'hardcore'. 'sí' in 'Que sí, hombre' is translated 'do', as in do-re-mi, I guess. p5,11-12 has 'quieres/quiero repeatedly translated as "with friends like those who needs enemies". Which is just inexplicable. I can't imagine how that would happen. Corrupted dictionary? ..and most of the trickiest words on a page aren't translated, maybe because not in your dictionary or they have 'lo' or 'se' appended.
sethish 6y ago
You might be more familiar with another project the Free Ebook Foundation maintains: https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/ https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/ Which is one of the top-10 repos on github by number of stars.
thangalin 6y ago
I wrote a technical comparison between various public domain eBook projects: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg-projects/ https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg-p...
voldemort1968 6y ago
What is improved by adding Git to PG?
- sethish 6y ago
  It's not so much about just adding git to books, but git to the transcriptions of books from printed materials. There are errors in the transcriptions, many books are lacking formatting, and many books pre-date Unicode and are in ascii. Tracking the book's source files in git makes it easier to collaborate on making these changes, or seeing what changes have been made.
- bilinualcom 6y ago
  Well, for my side project, https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com I needed version controlling for changes that are made on a book (fixed typos, ...) and I found GITenberg project. There are several interesting tools developed during the project accessible here: https://github.com/gitenberg-dev https://github.com/gitenberg-dev
anaphor 6y ago
I like how they're able to accurately tag translators vs original authors, e.g. https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the-Peloponnesian-War_7142/blob/master/metadata.yaml https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the-Peloponnesia...

214 points by bilinualcom 6y ago

They’re probably going to have to change their name to something that does not have “git” in it: https://public-inbox.org/git/20170202022655.2jwvudhvo4hmueaw@sigill.intra.peff.net/ https://public-inbox.org/git/20170202022655.2jwvudhvo4hmueaw...

bhickey 6y ago
> It's hard to hold them responsible for picking a name that violated a policy that didn't yet exist. fwiw, Gitenberg has been around at least since 2012.
metiscus 6y ago
They've been named like that for six years apparently so I'm not sure how that works for what you linked above. It is a valid point that hopefully doesn't cause problems.
sethish 6y ago
Gitenberg was one of the alternate spellings of Gutenberg in the 1400s.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  I propose Gytenberg
  - artiszt 6y ago
    or, widely accepted standard [in german and slavic-languages] way back then, 'v' instead of 'u', and vice versa
    - agumonkey 6y ago
      ah well for some reason the visual asthetics of gytenberg vs gvtenberg made me chose the former (even though at first I typed gvtenberg)

hnarayanan 6y ago

I don't know why, but I expected some amazing typography in their PDFs. :(

sethish 6y ago
[Standard Ebooks](https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/) has accomplished a lot in producing better ebooks of public domain texts.
- bilinualcom 6y ago
  OP here, it seems standardebooks doesn't provide the books in PDF format. My side project, https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com rebuild the ebooks in PDF format with translation hints, if you don't mind about learning a new language while reading your favourite books ;)
  - sethish 6y ago
    There are about 400 GITenberg books that have CC-by licensed covers provided by Recovering the Classics. If you're interested in using that art for your PDFs I can find you the index!
    - bilinualcom 6y ago
      Thanks, it would be great. I am curious to know why do they have CC license and not public domain?
      - robin_reala 6y ago
        We have this problem with Standard Ebooks. The number of people that say things are public domain without actually checking it is very high. A CC0 licence is an explicit grant of public domain status by the licensor, and hence the legal issues rest with them in the event of any problem. Public domain obviously can be ascertained, but if CC0 hasn’t been granted we rely on dated reproductions: basically a photograph of the artwork in question in a book or journal with a copyright date of 1924 or earlier. (that’s obviously specifically a US legal reading, but SE from a legal point of view is a US project)

maire 6y ago

This looks like a subset of Project Gutenberg? The Girl from Alsace in Gitenberg: https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926 https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926 The Girl from Alsace in Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926 The numbers are even the same which seems suspicious. Hmmm.

bhickey 6y ago
It's a version controlled dump of Gutenberg.
chmod775 6y ago
"GITenberg is an exploration of how Project Gutenberg might work if all the Gutenberg texts were on Github, so that tools like version control, continuous integration, and pull-request workflow could be employed." https://ebookfoundation.org/ https://ebookfoundation.org/
sethish 6y ago
Yes, absolutely. Apologies if that's not clear from the website. GITenberg started as an experimental fork of PG, but due to the work of Eric Hellman at the Free Ebook Foundation, much of the infrastructure such as metadata formats, CI/CD for building books, and DVCS backend are being ported upstream to the Project Gutenberg infrastructure.
- maire 6y ago
  Thanks for the clarification!
  - bilinualcom 6y ago
    OP here, I doubt that the website is "a SUBSET of Project Gutenberg". This is not mentioned anywhere in the website. As mentioned in PG website, while you can use the book freely, "The name 'Project Gutenberg' is a registered trademark.". I guess this is the reason they didn't mention PG.

gravitas 6y ago

The https://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/ project has been rebuilding ebooks (open ePUB format) with an eye on quality and readability on mobiles/tablets (fonts, copyedit, etc.) which might be of interest, all books and the website revision are tracked in git.

sethish 6y ago
I'm a big fan of standardebooks! They're doing fantastic work producing better ebooks from Project Gutenberg sources.
- bilinualcom 6y ago
  OP here, I found this website when I was looking for a way to get the updated version (with correction) of a PG (Project Gutenberg) book and all changes/diffs from the point that I scrape the book from PG website for my language learning side project: https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com The bilinual Project also rebuild ebooks (modern HTML, PDF and open ePUB format) with better quality and readability( while it is not its prime goal). Take a look at one example here: https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23 https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23 https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.pdf https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.pdf https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.epub https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.epub
  - yesenadam 6y ago
    Wow, they look awesome, thank you! (Learning spanish here)
    - yesenadam 6y ago
      Looking at Unamuno's Abel Sanchez.. 'hermanos' is translated 'brethren' - super-archaic. p8, 'dedicado' in 'te has dedicado a pintar?' is translated 'hardcore'. 'sí' in 'Que sí, hombre' is translated 'do', as in do-re-mi, I guess. p5,11-12 has 'quieres/quiero repeatedly translated as "with friends like those who needs enemies". Which is just inexplicable. I can't imagine how that would happen. Corrupted dictionary? ..and most of the trickiest words on a page aren't translated, maybe because not in your dictionary or they have 'lo' or 'se' appended.

sethish 6y ago

You might be more familiar with another project the Free Ebook Foundation maintains: https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/ https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/ Which is one of the top-10 repos on github by number of stars.

thangalin 6y ago

I wrote a technical comparison between various public domain eBook projects: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg-projects/ https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg-p...

voldemort1968 6y ago

What is improved by adding Git to PG?

sethish 6y ago
It's not so much about just adding git to books, but git to the transcriptions of books from printed materials. There are errors in the transcriptions, many books are lacking formatting, and many books pre-date Unicode and are in ascii. Tracking the book's source files in git makes it easier to collaborate on making these changes, or seeing what changes have been made.
bilinualcom 6y ago
Well, for my side project, https://www.bilinual.com https://www.bilinual.com I needed version controlling for changes that are made on a book (fixed typos, ...) and I found GITenberg project. There are several interesting tools developed during the project accessible here: https://github.com/gitenberg-dev https://github.com/gitenberg-dev

anaphor 6y ago

I like how they're able to accurately tag translators vs original authors, e.g. https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the-Peloponnesian-War_7142/blob/master/metadata.yaml https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the-Peloponnesia...