I've found an interesting website today called vectorsite.net (http://www.vectorsite.net/) that contains a number of nice but sparsly-formatted writings, all released into the Public Domain. Some of his works are not useful to Wikibooks, but he has a number (about computing, science, and mathematics) which I think would be very very useful for us. Plus, the lack of complicated formatting means that it should be very easy for us to translate to wikitext and upload them at wikibooks.
I think I am going to do this for a few books (there are books on Awk and C programming that I am particularly interested) probably starting next week. I'll try to get a bot together to do the translation. If anybody wants to help, or suggest any books from this site to import as well, let me know. I'm also going to send a friendly email to the site's owner telling him that we're using his materials (and invite him to become a wikibookian!).
--Andrew Whitworth
He also has a large photography section that we could leech into Commons :-)
Magnus
On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 1:50 PM, Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@gmail.com wrote:
I've found an interesting website today called vectorsite.net (http://www.vectorsite.net/) that contains a number of nice but sparsly-formatted writings, all released into the Public Domain. Some of his works are not useful to Wikibooks, but he has a number (about computing, science, and mathematics) which I think would be very very useful for us. Plus, the lack of complicated formatting means that it should be very easy for us to translate to wikitext and upload them at wikibooks.
I think I am going to do this for a few books (there are books on Awk and C programming that I am particularly interested) probably starting next week. I'll try to get a bot together to do the translation. If anybody wants to help, or suggest any books from this site to import as well, let me know. I'm also going to send a friendly email to the site's owner telling him that we're using his materials (and invite him to become a wikibookian!).
--Andrew Whitworth
Textbook-l mailing list Textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 8:39 PM, Magnus Manske magnusmanske@googlemail.com wrote:
He also has a large photography section that we could leech into Commons :-)
How about rather invite him to doing so himself. He seems quite prolific and would serve whatever project he joined well. It seems like a better idea to contact him first before leeching anything. Granted, he put it in the public domain, but giving him the option of having a say whether his works belong on Wikibooks and Commons might be a more polite thing to do.
Cheers, Martin
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Martin Swift martin@swift.is wrote:
How about rather invite him to doing so himself. He seems quite prolific and would serve whatever project he joined well.
True, but it's a lot of work to have to go through and reformat all his work from HTML to wikitext. I have a bot that can do the translations automatically, which will be a very efficient process. Plus, I don't think all his works are suitable for Wikibooks, and I would hate for him to spend time translating things and later have us say that they aren't suitable. I think it would be far better to do the manual labor for him, and let him focus his energies on generating new content.
On a related note, he claims to have had a bad experience trying to use some of his content at Wikipedia, so he's more cautious about using his material at Wikibooks (although I've assured him that we don't bite!)
It seems like a better idea to contact him first before leeching anything. Granted, he put it in the public domain, but giving him the option of having a say whether his works belong on Wikibooks and Commons might be a more polite thing to do.
I have contacted him, and we have his blessing to start transferring materials. He asked to be kept in the loop about what we transfer and when, but besides that there's nothing he really wants. As a measure of courtesy, I'm going to post proper attribution information even though the work is PD.
--Andrew Whitworth
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 9:23 PM, Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 8:06 AM, Martin Swift martin@swift.is wrote:
How about rather invite him to doing so himself. He seems quite prolific and would serve whatever project he joined well.
True, but it's a lot of work to have to go through and reformat all his work from HTML to wikitext. I have a bot that can do the translations automatically, which will be a very efficient process. Plus, I don't think all his works are suitable for Wikibooks, and I would hate for him to spend time translating things and later have us say that they aren't suitable. I think it would be far better to do the manual labor for him, and let him focus his energies on generating new content.
I didn't say that we should have him do anything...
It seems like a better idea to contact him first before leeching anything. Granted, he put it in the public domain, but giving him the option of having a say whether his works belong on Wikibooks and Commons might be a more polite thing to do.
... simply that it would be better to let him know about what we'd like to do with his work.
I have contacted him, and we have his blessing to start transferring materials. He asked to be kept in the loop about what we transfer and when, but besides that there's nothing he really wants. As a measure of courtesy, I'm going to post proper attribution information even though the work is PD.
Great!
Martin
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 9:37 AM, Martin Swift martin@swift.is wrote:
I didn't say that we should have him do anything... ... simply that it would be better to let him know about what we'd like to do with his work.
Oh, Im sorry that I misunderstood you then! I have contacted him and told him about our intentions. I plan to start uploading the first two books today that are of interest to me, and will gladly help out anybody who wants additional books transferred too. I'll let people know how things progress.
--Andrew Whitworth
textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org