Please distribute.
Project Ben-Yehuda - Call for Volunteers ======================================== Project Ben-Yehuda <http://benyehuda.org/> is seeking volunteers to help build the Internet's Hebrew literature library. Project Ben-Yehuda, inspired by the (originally English) Project Gutenberg, aims to make available online classic texts -- poetry, stories, novels, and essays -- free of charge and for all who are interested. We are currently looking for computing help. We have several creative projects to work on; some are quite innovative (see below). If you are familiar with one or more of these technologies: * Web UI design and programming * Perl * Databases * Natural language processing (NLP) * Search engines And are looking to participate in an Internet project with significant social impact, please read on. Our site today offers the works of such authors as Rachel, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, and many others; we will make Bialik's work available soon, as copyright law permits. Texts are typed, proofread, edited and put online by human volunteers, and we are looking to streamline this process, as well as provide users with better tools for browsing, searching and displaying the texts. Some of the challenges facing us require state-of-the art solutions that can be yours to invent, develop, and deploy: Hebrew presents unique issues. For example, we envision a Hebrew search engine that is Nikkud-aware and does the Right Thing when the search string is (or isn't) given with Nikkud, when the target text has (or hasn't) Nikkud marks in it. There are other interesting problems to work on in data rendering and presentation; performance; cross-browser user interface; and more. We have already been approached by a sister project aiming to computerize Yiddish texts, and since several technological problems are similar, our plan is to develop a generic publishing solution that can work for either language. The Ben-Yehuda project consists only of volunteers. Over fifty people have contributed by typing in texts. Some have donated books. The Shenkar College of Engineering and Design has graciously donated hosting services. We have a small software team with clear preference for high quality and open source solutions. Join us or enquire for further details by writing <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
