No subject

have been discussing more open ways to define lists of scanned books
that can be bundled for download to an XO -- say, taking a list of
books and producing a library bundle out of their pdfs (or,
preferably, out of html versions of them).

To begin with, defining readers of classic/PD texts in various fields
would be rewarding and useful.  I don't know of a single source for
these, and wikiversity would certainly love to host them.  Google's
suggestion is to start with a spreadsheet shared by a google group...
I bet that can be done via a public wikipage just as well.  I'll try
to sell them on using a wikiversity page as the canonical source.
We're talking by phone Wednesday; other ideas to float are welcome.


===================
...the sharing features you outlined are not yet available on Google
Books and are fairly far out on the roadmap.  However, we can create a
Google Group for this task and develop collaborative spreadsheets for
specific contributors to suggest titles and edit/refine the list over
time.  The list could then be published and offered to the public at
large for more input.  I've set up a meeting with the team on
Wednesday morning to work through this solution (and alternatives) and
will hopefully have more information when we speak on Wednesday.


On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
>
> As for producing bundles of books : is there now a way for an open
> group of people to collaborate on a list of Google books that can be
> given a collection-title?  I know how I can create my own library, and
> tag my own books.  It is more scalable to have a dozen physics [or
> spanish literature] enthusiasts compile a list of classic works on
> mechanics [or children's fiction] and share that with the world /
> publish the list for criticism and refinement.
>
> > With respect to Google Books, we currently have a vast selection of public
> > domain books (in over 40 languages), including many literary classics,
> > available for download at http://books.google.com.  I would love to explore
> > ideas around creating pre-loaded bundles of this content specifically for
> > OLPC, possibly tailored for specific age groups or geographical locations.
> > I would be very interested to learn more about your objectives from a
> > content perspective and various ways we might be able to work together - are
> > you available for a call next week to discuss?
> >
> > I am not familiar with the prioritization process for the Harvard project,
> > or who is currently leading that project, but will do some research
> > internally and get back to you.
> >
> > Have a great weekend-
> > Larissa
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 12:32 PM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> I'd also be interested to know whether we can more directly engage the
> >> Harvard-Google project, since we are both in Cambridge - for instance
> >> to queue specific works to be scanned.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> SJ
> >>