Founder of Project Gutenberg, and the man commonly credited for making the first ebook, died September 6 in Urbana, Ill – Michael Hart was 64. Hart died in his Urbana home. The cause of death was not reported. Project Gutenberg, which Hart began in 1971, offers over 36,000 free ebooks for download to individuals’ PC, Kindle, Android, iOS and other portable devices.

The Declaration of Independence was the first ebook Hart made in 1971, the same year he started Project Gutenberg. Hart was a student at the University of Illinois at the time. Among the 300 books he typed out and posted to the internet were the Bible and the works of Homer, Shakespeare and Mark Twain, according to The Telegraph.

Today, volunteers scan works to the Project’s website which are available in more than 60 languages. The Project’s website includes an obituary which calls Hart “an ardent technologist and futurist.”

“Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world.” The obituary said. “Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.”

According to The Telegraph, when Hart was a student at the University of Illinois he was given an account with privileges to unlimited computer access at the Materials Research Laboratory. The internet was two years old at the time and was used only by academic and military researchers. Hart spend his time online downloading historic texts. He wanted to make these works accessible to the public.

By 1987 he had typed a total of 313 books. “I want a world where you can walk into a public library and get 90 per cent of the information you need copied on a disk that you don’t have to return,” Hart said at a symposium.

According to The Project’s website, Hart was frugal and resourceful man:

“Michael glided through life with many possessions and friends, but very few expenses. He used home remedies rather than seeing doctors. He fixed his own house and car. He built many computers, stereos, and other gear, often from discarded components.”

Hart will be “remembered as a dear friend, who sacrificed personal luxury to fight for literacy, and for preservation of public domain rights and resources, towards the greater good,” the obituary concluded. Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington, on March 8, 1947. He was unmarried.

The article Michael Hart, Creator of E-Book & Founder of Project Gutenberg Dies appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

An abandoned bike helped two students find their calling as street artists.

In Spring 2011, Vanessa Nicholas, 25, a student at Ontario College of Art, was tired of staring at an old bike that rusted outside a storefront on campus for years.

Nicholas, with the help of friend, Caroline Macfarlane, 26, painted the bike neon pink and planted flowers in the bike’s basket. Two days later, the city of Toronto placed a removal notice on the bike, referring to it as “a bike stored on public property.”

Nicholas articulated her frustration with the situation on Facebook: “The funny thing is that this bike has been sitting in the same place for years, unnoticed by the city. However, once it is brightened and made beautiful, it’s got to go. I am determined to save the neon bike that makes so many people happy.” she said.

Nicholas said she was surprised when a large virtual group seemed to back her mission to beautify the city. The story reached the international level after BoingBoing, — a highly visited website — pick up on Nicholas and Macfarlane’s story. On June 2, BoingBoing featured Nicholas’ Facebook post.

Nicholas and Macfarlane appeared before the press outside Toronto City Hall to announce the birth of “The Good Bike Project” — a city-sponsored public art initiative that planned to place 60 decorated bikes around Toronto.

The city’s opportunistic support of Nicholas and Macfarlane’s efforts paid off. Buzz of “The Good Bike Project” has continued to spread internationally. On August 12, The Guardian in the U.K., featured a photo of the original painted neon bike that was ticketed and a description of the project.

According to Nicholas and Macfarlane’s blog, “support for the bike had poured in from locals and from people in far flung locations including Brazil and Australia.”

Nicholas said resources for the project from the City of Toronto dwindled, but she and MacFarlane have managed to keep the project moving forward. “The reaction has been so positive,” Macfarlane says. “I just feel like there’s a thirst in the city for more public art, more colour, not less.”

Learn more about: “The Good Bike Project”

The article Two Girls Transform Abandoned Bikes into Public Art appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.