A
Message from Michael Hart:
Will
The First Trillion Dollar Charity Be Electronic
Public Libraries?
What
were the hottest news stories 100 years ago?
100
years ago one of the hottest stories was the start
of a new public library system by Andrew Carnegie,
one of the richest men in the world who was trying
to change his image from robber baron to philanthropist
in much the same way as Bill Gates is doing today.
The
changes made by the public library system, hand
in hand with grade schools through colleges, have
been so enormous that it is hard to get a perspective
on the fact the odds are about 10 times as great
today a person will get a college education as
it was 100 years ago.
In
the next census, you will find that about 30%
of people are getting a college education and
many more are getting advanced degrees because
of something as simple as learning to read at
an early age.
From
Children Born in 1900 to Children Born in 2000
The
hottest item in thousands of towns 100 years ago
were libraries!!!
Millions
of people who had never even owned a book before
Sears mailed them their first, now had an entire
library they could get books from!
Today,
right in front of our eyes, but largely ignored
by the media's, and our own, predilection with,
guess what, the media, we have similar changes
happening that can already bring ONE MILLION electronic
eBooks to anyone who chooses to download them,
free of any payments.
Today
There Are 1 Million Free Electronic Books on the
Internet
In
large part, this is the result of efforts by Project
Gutenberg, and their 50,000+ volunteers, who have
been creating just such collections of electronic
library materials starting two decades before
their word "Internet" ever appeared
on the front page or cover story of any major
modern media outlet. [The Wall St. Journal, 10/29/91]
Today
Project Gutenberg has been joined by The World
Public Library and Digital Pulp Publishing, Internet
Archive, along with Jim Baen [R.I.P.], in the
creation
of The World eBook Fair which hopes to bring you,
and everyone else, a downloadable collection of
1/2 million eBooks in October, in honor of, what
else, International Book Fair Month. Most of these
eBooks are to be given away free of charge, but
as requested by readers of The First World eBook
Fair, more modern, and thus commercial, eBooks
are to be a feature of The Second World eBook
Fair.
The
greatest satisfaction I have ever received from
my decades of work to create this new medium are
from the notes I receive that tell me of people
who would never have read the great works if we
had not made an electronic library available where
they could get them in one second-- then read
them for the rest of their lives--all free of
any charges.
A
Trillion Dollars Worth of Books?
Project
Gutenberg has over 100,000 electronic books available,
and the target audience they have in mind is 1.5%
of the world in this decade, and 15% of the world
in the next decade.
Don't
laugh, 15% of the world is already on the Internet
now. . . .
However,
even at only 1.5%, that is 100 million people.
Just
1/2 of the current United States population. .
. .
If
we get the average one of those 100,000 eBooks
to those 100,000,000 people we are targeting.
. .that is TEN TRILLION eBOOKS!!!
Can
you find anyone else even TRYING to give that
much away???
If you think education is expensive, try eBooks!
Project
Gutenberg has never received even one million
dollars in total donations over all these years
yet has given away ONE TRILLION dollars worth
of eBooks at just 10 cents a copy for 10 trillion
eBooks.
Visit
the World eBook Fair, WorldeBookFair.org,
July 4th to August 4th 2008 to download for FREE
your selection of One Million eBooks.
