September 2000 > GDT, the largest bilingual online French-English dictionary
The OQLF (Office Québécois de la Langue Française - Quebecois Office of the French Language) launched in September 2000 the GDT (Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique — Main Terminological Dictionary), a free online bilingual French-English dictionary with 3 million terms related to industry, science and commerce. This online version was a technological challenge, and the result of a partnership between the OQLF, author of the dictionary, and Semantix, a company specializing in linguistic software. During the first month, the GDT counted 1.3 million individual visits, with peaks of 60,000 daily visits. The database was then maintained by Convera Canada, with 3.5 million hits per month in February 2003. A revamped version of the GDT went online in March 2003. The database is presently maintained by the OQLF itself, with the addition of Latin as a third language.
September 2000 > Numilog, a French-language digital bookstore
Numilog was founded in March 2000 by Denis Zwirn in Paris, France, as a company specializing in the distribution of digital books. In September 2000, Numilog launched an online bookstore that became the main French- language aggregator of digital books. In December 2006, the catalog included 35,000 books and audiobooks from 60 publishers, including Gallimard, POL, Le Dilettante, Le Rocher, La Découverte, De Vive Voix, Eyrolles or Pearson Education France. Numilog is now (since May 2008) a subsidiary of Hachette Livre, a leading publishing group. In January 2009, the catalog was offering 100,000 ebooks from 100 publishers, with tailored services for bookstores and libraries.
October 2000 > Distributed Proofreaders, to share the correction of digitized books
Distributed Proofreaders (DP) was founded in 2000 by Charles Franks to support the digitization of public domain books and assist Project Gutenberg in its efforts to offer free electronic versions of literary works. Distributed Proofreaders presently became the main source of Project Gutenberg's ebooks, and an official Project Gutenberg site in 2002. In May 2006, Distributed Proofreaders became a separate legal entity and continues to maintain a strong relationship with Project Gutenberg. 10,000 books were digitized, proofread, and "preserved for the world" in December 2006, and 18,000 books in June 2010. Distributed Proofreaders Europe (DP Europe) began production in early 2004. Distributed Proofreaders Canada (DP Canada) bagan production in December 2007.
October 2000 > The Public Library of Science, or science for all
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) was founded in October 2000 in California as a non-profit organization whose mission was to give access to the world's scientific and medical literature, with a search engine and hyperlinks between articles. PLoS posted an open letter requesting the articles traditionally published in expensive journals to be distributed freely in online archives, and asking researchers to promote the publishers willing to support this project. From October 2000 to September 2002, the open letter was signed by 30,000 scientists from 180 countries. The publishers' answer was much less enthusiastic, although a number of publishers agreed for their articles to be freely distributed immediately after publication (or six months after publication for some of them). But even the publishers who initially agreed to support the project of PloS made so many objections that it was finally abandoned. PloS became a publisher of free high-quality online scientific and medical journals in January 2003.
October 2000 > The eBookMan, a multimedia personal assistant by
Franklin
In October 2000, Franklin launched the eBookMan, a multimedia personal assistant that - among other features (calendar, voice recorder, etc.) - allowed people to read books on the Franklin Reader. Three models (EBM-900, EBM-901 and EBM-911) were available in early 2001, for US$130, $180 or $230 depending on the RAM size (8 or 16 MB) and a backlit or not LCD screen. Much larger than the screen of its competitors, the screen was only in black and white, unlike the Pocket PC or some PDAs from Palm. The eBookMan could also be used to listen to audiobooks and music files in MP3 format. In October 2001, people could read books on the Mobipocket Reader, and the Franklin Reader was also available for the Pocket PC and PDAs from Psion, Palm, and Nokia.