public domain books. Originally conceived
to assist Project Gutenberg, Distributed Proofreaders is now the main
source of its ebooks. In 2002, Distributed Proofreaders became an
official Project Gutenberg site. In May 2006, Distributed Proofreaders
became a separate legal entity and continues to maintain a strong
relationship with Project Gutenberg. Distributed Proofreaders has
digitized 10,000 books in December 2006 and 18,000 books in June 2010.
Distributed Proofreaders Europe was founded in 2004. Distributed
Proofreaders Canada (DP Canada) was founded in July 2007.

October 2000 > The Public Library of Science, or science for all

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) was founded in October 2000 by
biomedical scientists. Headquartered in San Francisco, PLoS is a
non-profit organization whose mission is to give access to the world's
scientific and medical literature, with a search engine and hyperlinks
between articles. PLoS posted an open letter requesting the articles
presently published by journals to be distributed freely in online
archives, and asking researchers to promote the publishers willing to
support this project. From October 2000 to September 2002, the open
letter was signed by 30,000 scientists from 180 countries. The
publishers' answer was much less enthusiastic, although a number of
publishers agreed for their articles to be distributed freely
immediately after publication, or six months after publication in their
journals. But even the publishers who initially agreed to support the
project made so many objections that it was finally abandoned. PloS
became a publisher in January 2003.

October 2000 > The eBookMan, a personal assistant from Franklin

In October 2000, Franklin launched the eBookMan, a multimedia personal
assistant that--among other features (calendar, voice recorder,
etc.)--allowed people to read books on the Franklin Reader. Three models
(EBM-900, EBM-901 and EBM-911) were available in early 2001, for
US$130, $180 or $230 depending on the size of RAM (8 or 16 MB) and a
backlit or not LCD screen. Much larger than the screen of its
competitors, the screen was only in black and white, unlike the Pocket
PC or some PDAs from Palm. The eBookMan could also be used to listen to
audiobooks and music files in MP3 format. In October 2001, people could
read books on the Mobipocket Reader, and the Franklin Reader was
available for the Pocket PC and PDAs from Psion, Palm and Nokia.

November 20