User:John Carter/Wikisource column

This is possibly the first in what might be an irregular column regarding the activity over for the Wikipedia Signpost, probably one of a series of generally "alternating" columns covering many of the WMF entities other than the English wikipedia.

Some of you may already have edited to some degree over there. The purpose of the site is to provide full-text reproductions of works available in the public domain which can be downloaded or otherwise used by anyone so desiring.

Most of the readers of this page, however, will be primarily active in wikipedia, and might wonder about why what happens there should be of interest here, and, possibly, to what degree it might or might not be useful to them, and/or if there exists any reason to spend any of the time they might otherwise use at wikipedia or some other WMF entity there.

So, in an attempt to get some answers for those questions, I have contacted a few of the editors active over there to answer them.


 * 1) To what degree, if any, do you think that the material available at wikisource might be useful to either editors or readers of wikipedia?


 * A: Please try to ensure that there is a blank section for the next editor below.
 * Beeswaxcandle The reason Wikisource was set up originally was to provide RS for Wikipedia articles. And, within the limits imposed by Public Domain requirements, we are working towards this. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the various volumes that make up the Dictionary of National Biography, the 1900 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and the first 87 volumes of Popular Science Monthly are some of the larger reference work projects in progress at present. Alongside these projects we have wikisourcerors working on the complete works of Jonathan Swift, various collections of poetry, 19th and early 20th century fiction, scientific papers, Bible commentaries, the Southern Historical Papers, the complete works of Henry James, …


 * 2) In what ways, if any, do you think that editing at wikisource might be useful or interesting for individuals who might otherwise edit wikipedia?


 * A: Please try to ensure that there is a blank section for the next editor below.


 * 3) What in particular are your personal primary interests at wikisource?


 * A: Please try to ensure that there is a blank section for the next editor below.
 * Beeswaxcandle While I have broad range of involvement here at enWS, my primary project is the 1900 edition of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians edited by George Grove. There are images, text and snippets of music score all needing to be integrated and some pages of the original are quite a challenge to bring through. Secondary projects include children's books written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (24 volumes), and the Antarctic voyage of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus.


 * 4) Can you think of any specific ways editing at wikisource might be beneficial to editors or readers of wikipedia?


 * A: Please try to ensure that there is a blank section for the next editor below.


 * 5) Are there any areas of wikisource which you think are potentially of the greater interest or utility to editors or readers of wikipedia which might be at best underdeveloped?


 * A: Please try to ensure that there is a blank section for the next editor below.