[school-discuss] Fwd: RE: Gutenberg radio

[Mike Eschman <meschman@etc-edu.com>]

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: RE: Gutenberg radio
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 15:12:18 +1000
From: "Lane, Bernard" <laneb@theaustralian.com.au>
To: 'Mike Eschman' <meschman@etc-edu.com>

Dear Mike,

Short article and editorial below --- Regards, Bernard Lane. Doesn't
seem to be online yet, will send you the link if it appears.


The Australian WED 30 APR 2003, Page 008

Books talk on the web

By: Bernard Lane


WHAT a surprise to hear Captain Nemo resurface on the internet, courtesy
of Radio Gutenberg, where fine old writing meets the geeks.

A multimedia company in New Orleans has begun free web broadcasts of
classic books from the online library of Project Gutenberg, an
idealistic venture named after the father of modern printing.

Captain Nemo, in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, can be
heard in streamed stereo by tuning your computer and media player to
Radio Gutenberg at www.etc-edu.com/.

On the mono channel this week is Edward Gibbon's long-scribbled history
of the rise and fall of the Roman empire.

Other audio books could be plucked from the library, marked up and fed
through the digital voice machine on request, said Mike Eschman, of
Enigma Technologies Corp, which hosts Radio Gutenberg.

He offered as an inspirational example a Gutenberg volunteer, ``Ann in
Michigan'', who had ``spurred us to make an audio reading of `The
Unwilling Vestal,' an exciting and sexy pot-boiler about ancient Rome
that gives an unusually clear and precise view of the life of the vestal
virgins''.

At this stage the digital narrator's voice is rather robotic and book
downloads can take a while.

But one commentator on the Slashdot technology news site in the US had a
more basic objection: ``Does anyone find it weird that they're using
Gutenberg in a phrase related to sound, not sight? Gutenberg helped end
the need for everything to be said.''


The newspaper also ran a short editorial ...


The Australian  WED 30 APR 2003, Page 012

Internet offers a creative chaos

IN some circles, it is still fashionable to dismiss the internet as a
jungle thick with trivia, porn stars and scam emails from Nigeria.
There's plenty of this, it's true. But there's plenty of everything
online and more of it every day. That's the real story.

As publishers let fine titles go out of print, as libraries turf out
books they can no longer house, the net keeps extending its catholic
embrace of every imaginable human interest, from the banal to the
sublime. In its short, chaotic history the net has always been a good
place for those who are intelligent, cultured and idealistic. They're
well aware of the shortcomings of the net, but they don't make the
mistake of ignoring the many virtues of what is a revolutionary form of
social communication.
Take Project Gutenberg, based in the US, which predates the net but
makes public-spirited use of it. Volunteers can ``adopt'' a Beethoven
string quartet, thereby helping PG make music freely available online as
it has done with out-of-copyright books. These books are not just
well-known texts from the western canon but include almost forgotten
Australian curiosities such as EJ Banfield's Confessions of A Beachcomber.

Now Radio Gutenberg has come on the air, thanks to a collaboration with
a multi-media company based in New Orleans, US. With a computer and
standard software, you can listen to a streamed broadcast of selected
titles -- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, for example --
or download them as MP3 files. True, the downloads are biggish and slow,
and the digitised narrator is no mellifluous Jeremy Irons. But
enterprises such as Radio Gutenberg hint at the promising convergence of
advances in computer hardware, software, and broadband.

Thanks to the internet, never before have so many of the fruits of human
creativity been available so immediately and inexpensively. But because
people also need information that is edited, authoritative, and
non-chaotic, it will thrive alongside, not at the expense of,
traditional media such as newspapers.




-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Eschman [mailto:meschman@etc-edu.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2003 8:40
To: Lane, Bernard
Subject: Re: Gutenberg radio


hello,

please send me your copy.  the gutenberg guys would like to have it.
me too.

mike eschman, etc ...

On Tuesday 29 April 2003 03:08, you wrote:
> Thanks Mike,
>
> Hoping to publish tomorrow (in print and possibly on line).
>
> Regards, Bernard Lane
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Eschman [mailto:meschman@etc-edu.com]
> Sent: Monday, 28 April 2003 11:00
> To: Lane, Bernard
> Cc: mike hart; Hamilton Marianna
> Subject: Re: Gutenberg radio
>
> On Sunday 27 April 2003 19:16, you wrote:
> > Dear ETC,
> >
> > I'm very interested to learn more about Gutenberg Radio. I'm a

journalist

> > in Australia (where Project Gutenberg has its own site).
> >
> > Would you mind answering a few questions?
>
> not at all, but i want to know when you publish this article.
>
> with it be on-line? in print?
>
> > 1. How did the idea for Gutenberg Radio come about? When did it begin?
> > Has anyone done this before with Project Gutenberg?
>
> to my knowledge, no one has done this before for project gutenberg.
> we started in april-may of 2002 (about) making audio books for project
> gutenberg.  we are also heavily invoved with the music community in new
> orleans (jazzfest is going on as we speak) and have been doing live
> broadcasts from clubs, and on one occasion, our offices.
>
> (last year, we provided wireless services for jazzfest that were used by
> the
>
> staff of wwoz, the world's most popular jazz station.)
>
>
> the audio books can be quite long, and we wanted people to have an
> opportunity
> to hear gutenberg books without the committment of a download.  looking  to
> the future, we also want to perfect the technology required to produce

live

> plays made from gutenberg materials at universities and high schools
> worldwide.  we have actually produced one live radio play of a jack london
> story from south sea tales, "The House of Mapuhi".
>
> but these are quite expensive, and we will need collaborators to do more.
>
> because the gutenberg materials can be used freely, and because the
> broadcast
> technology we use  is open source and runs on linux, students can get

hands

> on practice in creating plays from the plots of classics such as Dracula
> and
>
> The Great Gadsby (and in Australia Charlie Chan and Dr. Challenger :-))

in

> sufficient quantity to launch careers.
>
> and students in high school can get "hands on" in writing by re-casting
> third
> person verbage to first person, to stage directions or both - which is

much

> more effective than the usual drills and rote -  in having students

develop

> and retain real skills.  after all, we're about more than preserving
> teacher
>
> salaries via test scores, or, at least, i hope we are, aren't we? (nudge,
> nudge).
>
> > 2. Is Project Gutenberg involved?
>
> very much so.  we wanted to maximize the value we were bringing to
> gutenberg.
> mike hart and greg newby have been extremely supportive to our efforts.
> one of the other contributors, william fishburne, has donated substantial
> blocks
>
> of time to helping us perfect the synth voices, particularly the voices
> ability to shape phrases more naturally.  david price is a contributor of
> many of the books the etc ... crew is in love with, and he has often
> boosted
>
> our spirits and our efforts.  steve eccles (who is in tasmania) has also
> been
> producing books using other synth voice technology, such as the voyage of
> the
> beagle, and has been collaborating with us of late.  david ceponis is one
> of
>
> the first gutenbergers to create audio books, and he is allowing and
> assisting us in broadcasting his readings of the decline and fall of the
> roman empire by gibbon. (the history, as opposed to the monkey ...)
>
> > 3. How does it work?
>
> - the text is evaluated, and edited if necessary, by a gutenberger.
> - a set of scripts "automagically" mark up the gutenberg text.
> - the markup text is converted to audio.
> - the audio is mixed down and "balanced", introducing acoustical and other
> performance enhancing studio techniques.
>
> this produces mono and stereo products in wav and mp3 products.
>
>  thompson electronics has generously waived mp3 royalities because of the
> charitable nature and cultural importance of the gutenberg archives to the
> world community.
>
> programming schedules the book for early broadcast at the same time
> the book is submitted for gutenberg review.  funding gutenberg is vital,
> and
>
> that is done by fund raising, as for most non-profits.  we see the
> broadcasts
> as playing an important role in raising funds for gutenberg.
>
> By MP3 download rather than web broadcast?
>
> you can pick your poison.  a book gets a week's worth of air time and 4  to
> 6
>
> weeks of download time at etc ... once it has passed gutenberg review and
> approval, it is permanently available for download from gutenberg's
> distribution network.
>
> on major holidays around here, we release cd images with collections of
> audio
> books.
>
>  What
>
> > software would you need on your PC to listen?
>
> windows media player, winamp, RealPlayer 8 (with streaming support)
> and the xmms player (as well as many others) all work fine.
>
> many browsers, such as mozilla, will play using the built in audio

support.

>  Is there a list of works
>
> > likely to be available in the near future?
>
> we produce about a dozen new books a month, and, when the technology
> improves,
> we re-issue previously released books to take advantage of the

advancements

> in
> the new production process.
>
> any of the gutenbergers can instigate the creation of a new book.
>
>  ann in michigan spurred us to make an audio reading of
> "the unwilling vestal", an exciting and sexy pot-boiler about ancient rome
> that gives an unusually clear and precise view of the life of the vestal
> virgins.
>
> our plans (at etc ...) are to release :
>
> the most popular works of h.g. wells and jules verne.
> our favorite edith warton.
> all of d.h. lawrence.
> the most popular mark twain.
> many of dickens best works.
> all of balzac, who is an under-rated god of literature.
> a lot of victor hugo.
> most of thomas hardy, a personal favorite.
> and about 50 re-releases too ...
>
>
> and i will change my mind on the drop of a pin...
>
> send in some requests.
>
> better yet, send mike hart a check and a request - he's a hard guy (for

me)

> to
> turn down.
>
> Any charges?
>
> none at all.  this is an advertising expense for the prowess of the etc

...

> team.
>
> on the other hand, send those donations in to gutenberg.
>
>
> it gets harder every day - for all of us - to fund this collection off our
> brows, (and asses if you can permit that :-))_
>
> you would be stunned to know how much difference donations make in
> everything
> that happens at gutenberg.  and bandwidth, etc ... is quite expensive.
> thank
> God for our partners DSI - our ISP - who have been unrelenting in their
> committment to this project and its ideals.
>
> > 4. Can you till me about your company ETC? (Where you are based, etc)
>
> we produce bulk multi-media for distribution on cds, dvds and by

broadcasts

> using open source technologies - particularly audio for government, the
> disabled and english as a second language readers, and videos of textual
> simulation logs for government agencies and engineering concerns, and
> music products for artists.
>
> we use open source software running under linux in most cases.
>
> DSI is our local isp and a distribution channel for our end products.
> they are at http://www.dsi-us.com.
>
> we are located in metairie, a suburb of new orleans.
>
> this is my hometown.
>
> i went away, but came back 6 years ago.
>
> here, chlosterol is a vitamin :-) i couldn't live without being around

SOME

> people who think that way.  it may be healthy to keep the butter away from
> the shrimp ALL the time, but it doesn't do much for the quality of life,
> does
> it?
>
> mike eschman, etc ...
> http://www.etc-edu.com
> "Not just an afterthought ...
>
> > Regards,
> >
> > Bernard Lane
> >
> > The Australian newspaper
> > Sydney
> > www.theaustralian.com.au
> >
> > 61 2 9288 2551 phone
> > 61 2 9288 2250 fax
> >
> >
> >
> > This message and its attachments may contain legally privileged or
> > confidential information. It is intended solely for the named addressee.
>
> If
>
> > you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
> > delivery of the message to the addressee), you may not copy or deliver
>
> this
>
> > message or its attachments to anyone. Rather, you should permanently
>
> delete
>
> > this message and its attachments and kindly notify the sender by reply
> > e-mail. Any content of this message and its attachments which does not
> > relate to the official business of News Limited or its subsidiaries must
>
> be
>
> > taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No warranty is
>
> made
>
> > that the e-mail or attachment(s) are free from computer virus or other
> > defect.

--
gutenberg! yum!


This message and its attachments may contain legally privileged or
confidential information. It is intended solely for the named addressee. If
you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
delivery of the message to the addressee), you may not copy or deliver this
message or its attachments to anyone. Rather, you should permanently delete
this message and its attachments and kindly notify the sender by reply
e-mail. Any content of this message and its attachments which does not
relate to the official business of News Limited or its subsidiaries must be
taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No warranty is made
that the e-mail or attachment(s) are free from computer virus or other
defect.

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
gutenberg! yum!