Ray Saintonge wrote:
Another approach to proofreading is to have it done independently from the beginning by two different people and using a file compare function to compare the results. The benefit here is that it reduces the possibility that one person might be influenced by another's errors.
Double-key entry works very well for typed material because the errors made by typists are random. The biggest problem with proofreading OCRed material isn't the errors introduced, but the errors already in the text that are missed ("he" instead of "be"; "arid" instead of "and"; etc.). Because of this, it makes the most sense to have the proofreading rounds build on the work of the previous round.
I looked at the volume 1 material, notably at "Algae", but the illustrations are not there. How does PG plan to deal with illustrations? How searchable is the PG version? Would I be able to easily find an article without downloading the whole volume? The Algae article includes a "q.v." to "Bryophyta". Does PG anticipate that I* would be able to follow that link with a simple click of the mouse?
Volume 1 was not done by DP. The HTML version of Volume 2, http://snowy.arsc.alaska.edu/gutenberg/1/3/6/0/13600/13600-h/13600-h.htm is a better model for how the rest of the EB will be done. Illustrations are included, but linking q.v.'s won't be feasible until the entire encyclopedia is finished. Luckily, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it's fairly easy to jump to the entry you want :)
Michael