- We have several books in production stage, which mainly means converting them to the look and feel of the library by applying styles, putting the chapters together as book, and creating a pdf. Expect to see several releases in early 2008.
- Release 4 of Information Systems will appear in a few days. You will also note that with each release, we now publish release notes to advise of changes. Release notes are common in the software business, and as that is a model for much of our thinking, we have instituted that practice.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education printed an excellent article on the project in its November 19 issue. Take a look at it via the “In the News” page on the website. We had two good contacts for additional publicity. One from the Voice of America is out and also available on the “In the News” page. The other, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, published a report on the project on December 30, also linked to at "In the News." We also had several expressions of interest from potential editors in chief for additions to the library, on topics ranging from medicine to philosophy and tourism. Finally, we were contacted by the Global Learning Portal and USAID and had a good conversation which we are confident will lead to a collaboration agreement.
- The Voice of America publicity resulted in our receiving volunteers for translating texts into Chinese and Vietnamese, as well as other expressions of interest.
- Don and Rick had a conversation with QAB member Ike Williams and his associate, Paul Sennot. They will draft a letter of agreement for EICs and chapter editors to clarify copyright issues. Ike and Paul will also draft a standard letter for authors to send to publishers to have copyrights returned for existing texts not being marketed.
Such texts will be added to the library after they have been updated and run through the Global Text Quality review process. - Rick met with several of the chapter editors of Information Systems at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in Montreal. As usual, he came away with some good ideas on advancing the project.
- During ICIS, Ted Stohr of the Stevens Institute of Technology chaired the first meeting of SIG on ICT in Global Development (SIG GLOBDEV). The Global Text Project has been adopted as a project by the SIG.
- Rick has spoken to several people on building a GIS to provide details of volunteers, adopters, universities, etc. He and Don and will review the situation soon before taking action.
- We are in the trial stages of using Sajan's software for translations. Sajan is making some modifications to enable the use of Open Document Format.
- Don gave a talk at a PhD seminar at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. As a result, Dr. Arlen Meyers volunteered to be EIC of a book on Bioentrepreneurship, and Dr. Mike Mannino will contribute his database book. Dr. Meyers introduced Don to the Dean of the School of Public Health, and Don has a meeting set up for late January to discuss the project.
Cheers Rick and Don
