Re: The Superhighway Steamroller

Jeff Barry <jeff@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
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Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 16:58:30 +0200
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From: Jeff Barry <jeff@utkux.utcc.utk.edu>
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Subject: Re: The Superhighway Steamroller
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On Mon, 27 Jun 1994, Nick Arnett wrote:

> If these articles hadn't come from Prof. Hart, I'd ignore them, but his
> project is so interesting that I can't.  

Evidently, you haven't heard "Professor" Hart in action.  Two years ago 
he spoke to a gathering of librarians and library and information science 
grad students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Before I heard 
him speak I thought the Gutenberg Project was interesting, afterwards I 
realized that it has serious flaws.

Hart's uses a pool of volunteers who either keys in or scans texts from 
literary sources which are no longer under copyright.  Minimal effort 
seems to be made to guarantee the accuracy of the texts.  Of course, any 
effort to assure that the electronic text matches the printed text relies 
upon the original text to be accurate.  Many textual scholars can point 
out that texts which have been printed are not always accurate.

Two years ago Hart argued that rekeying was more efficient that OCR; I 
wouldn't necessarily argue that but I do wonder why anyone thinks a 
reasonable human would prefer to read a novel on a VT100 monitor rather 
than out of a 75 cent paperback from a used book store or a hardcover 
volume from the local library.

I can't speak for the academic library community, but I haven't ever spoken 
to a colleague who seems to have a high opinion of Mr. Hart and his 
project.  It's inconsequential as far as I'm concerned.  IMHO, his 
ravings are best left ignored.  If www-talk is fortunate, Hart won't 
subscribed to this group.  Every listserv I'm on which he monitors seems 
to be inundated which his periodic posting on new releases to the 
Gutenberg project.  When you see the same posting on every listserv you 
get into the habit of deleting everything which comes from Hart's email 
address without looking at it -- which is exactly what I do.


> COPYRIGHT (C) 1994, MULTIMEDIA COMPUTING CORP.  BUT I WOULDN'T GO AND POST
> IT TO AN OPEN NET MAILING LIST OR A NEWSGROUP IF IT WEREN'T OKAY FOR ANYONE
> TO COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE IT.  AFTER ALL, THAT'S HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS, SO

As I recall from another list, Hart started to add a copyright statement 
to his postings after others started to rebut what he said by quoting 
some of his statements. I believe Hart claimed he was being quoted out of 
context. 

Note that while Hart's email address ends in uiuc.edu, he has no 
affiliation with the University of Illinois.  Two years ago, his business 
card -- which I probably still have somewhere -- listed "systems analyst" 
as his occupation.  :-)

Hart seems obsessed with being able to say that he will have 
given away a trillion texts for free by 2001. IMHO, it seems that Hart is 
driven by his own egoistic pursuits.

I realize that I have open myself up for flaming from Mr. Hart, 
but he seems to enjoy such provocations. Since librarians have been 
putting up with him for years on the network, thought I would let the 
rest of you know his "reputation." 

Jeff Barry
Cooperative Information Services Librarian
The University of Tennessee Libraries
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1000
jeff@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
(615)974-8691