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There is more to freely redistributable information than software. Here is a partial list of organizations providing other forms of freely redistributable information.
John Goodwin, jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov, is working on a
project called "FreeLore". One goal is to create a core of useful,
copylefted textbooks. Currently, he is testing a prototype curriculum
for students from junior-high school through early college; the
curriculum is written in Texinfo. The FreeLore project is looking for
volunteers. For more information, contact John Goodwin.
The Online Book Initiative focuses on books, conference proceedings,
reference material, catalogues, etc. that can be freely shared.
Currently, OBI has about 200MB of (mostly compressed) text online,
ranging from poetry to standards documents to novels. Everything can be
accessed via anonymous FTP to obi.std.com. You can also dial
world.std.com with a modem (617-739-9753, 8N1) and create an
account to access this information (login as new). Accounts on
world are charged for their connect time (ask
office@world.std.com for details).
Project Gutenberg is the brainchild of Michael Hart. Back in 1971, he decided to use extra computer time to type in copyright-free articles, and he has not stopped since. What started with the Declaration of Independence has grown to include text ranging from the King James version of the Bible, to The Scarlet Letter, to data from the 1990 U.S. Census.
Texts from Project Gutenberg are available at a number of FTP sites,
including mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (in `/etext') and
oes.orst.edu (filename `/pub/almanac/etext'). For
instructions on how to obtain text from Bitnet, send the word `HELP' in
the body of a message to BITFTP@PUCC
(BITFTP%PUCC.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu on the Internet).
Instructions will be mailed. Or look at
bit.listserv.gutnberg, a USENET group.
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