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 items 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 Starting, July 4, 2008 at:
http://WorldeBookFair.org
We
heartily thank you for visiting The World eBook Fair.
We
hope you and yours will find lifetimes of reading materials
to expand your horizons over the years.
Michael
Hart's hint: "Start with the Browse
Collections page."
A
Message From Michael Hart::