I came across Distributed Proofreaders via an article on Slashdot (although the article has now been replicated on Kuro5hin). Basically, it’s a group of volunteers (a bit like ODP) that “proof-read” books for Project Gutenberg (a site where you can download ‘out-of-copyright’ books). I’ve only been a member now for just over 24 hours, but I’m really enjoying it – and I’ve proof read 50 pages so far (rank 347 out of 3349).
The daily goal for all this month is 1,133 pages – yesterday they exceeded over 15,500 pages and have done over 6,313 so far today (15:01 their server time – Pacific Time). The monthly goal is 34,000 pages – it’s just the 9th today and over 21,590 pages have been completed this month, so I think they may just make it (especially as I think the ‘pages completed today’ figures aren’t added to the ‘pages completed this month’ until the end of the day).
I’ve actually quite enjoyed proof-reading Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (Amazon.co.uk links because the books haven’t finished going through DP yet – Amazon’s price is only £1.25 each though, so why not buy a copy? 🙂 ), and I’m going to try and download them as soon as they’ve finished going through the post-processing phase.
Why do I like DP? Well, I do read at a ferocious rate (I’ve just finished The Throwback by Tom Sharpe, whilst simultaneously watching his Porterhouse Blue on VHS [also available on DVD]) – starring David Jason and Iain Richardson, so I’m always on the lookout for new books to read – plus I like “giving something back” to the internet community (hence why I’m also an editor for the ODP, ChefMoz and a contributor to many other sites).
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