The Early Development of Project Gutenberg c.1970–2000

Project Gutenberg is more significant as a place for community building than the first ebook publisher.

Simon Rowberry (Author)

9781108743181, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 June 2023

75 pages
17.8 x 12.7 x 0.6 cm, 0.108 kg

Project Gutenberg is lauded as one of the earliest digitisation initiatives, a mythology that Michael Hart, its founder perpetuated through to his death in 2011. In this Element, the author re-examines the extant historical evidence to challenge some of Hart's bolder claims and resituates the significance of Project Gutenberg in relation to broader trends in online document delivery and digitisation in the latter half of the twentieth century, especially in the World Wide Web's first decade (the 1990s). Through this re-appraisal, the author instead suggests that Hart's Project is significant as an example of what Millicent Weber has termed a “digital publishing collective” whereby a group of volunteers engage in producing content and that process is as meaningful as the final product.

1. Introduction
2. Mythological Origins
3. Ideology
4. Technological Platforms
5. Platform Governance
6. Digital Publishing Collective
7. Anti-Platform: Project Gutenberg's Lasting Influence
Cast of Characters
Timeline.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]