[okfn-discuss] Proposed project on Milton

Fri Feb 29 15:10:56 UTC 2008

Quoting Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>:

> Hi Iain!
>
> Iain Emsley wrote:
>> Apologies for the slightly random email whilst I was trying to    
>> unsubscribe my Yahoo account.
>
> No problem ;-)
I'm really embarrassed because I work on a help desk...
>
> We'd certainly support such a project. If you are looking for a home in
> the first instance, you're welcome to use our free KnowledgeForge
> service, where Open Shakespeare currently resides:
>
>   http://knowledgeforge.net/
>   http://knowledgeforge.net/project/shakespeare/
>
> I've just created a project for a repository of his texts here, with a
> subversion repository here:
>
>   http://knowledgeforge.net/project/milton/
>   http://knowledgeforge.net/project/milton/services/svn/
>
> Would it be worth grabbing openmilton.net or similar?
That would be fantastic. It'd then have a home to go to once there is  
enough built. How about openmilton.org?
>
>>
>> I'm curious as to how you can open up literature (something a    
>> colleague and I were discussing in the corridor) and language and   
>> use  the Open Data and the Internet to do this.
>>
>> Would this be of interest at all?
>
> Categorically yes!
>
> Its worth noting that the Project Gutenberg license is not fully 'open'
> (as in opendefinition.org), but that if you strip out Project
> Gutenberg's header/footer and any other references - the resulting text
> is open [1].
I was planning on splitting the licenses and definitions off as they  
throw text parsing.
>
> I suppose the first step would be to gather together a complete and
> fully open set of Milton's works to start tinkering around with:
>
>     http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a17
>
> I've been thinking a lot about tools you could create for public domain
> texts over the last little while. (Particularly in relation to
> philosophical texts.)
>
> It would be fun to draft a wish-list of features - for doing the kinds
> of thing you describe, and for scholarly purposes. For example, for
> linking together proper names across different texts, for marking up
> versions of the texts with page numbers in different editions, and so
> on.
I'm fully planning on coming to OkCon on March 15th - perhaps discuss there?
>
Regards,

Iain
>
> [1] See http://opendefinition.org/licenses
>
> <quote>Used on Gutenberg's ebooks of public domain texts. It is
> non-open because it restricts commercial use. Note that the license
> only applies if you continue to use the Gutenberg name - if you remove
> the licensing information and any reference to Project Gutenberg then
> the resulting text is open.</quote>

--

Iain Emsley

Blog: www.yatterings.com
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