Project Gutenberg loses founder

Project Gutenberg founder dies aged 64 | Books | guardian.co.uk: "Long before the Kindle, Nook or iPhone, there was Michael Stern Hart and his Project Gutenberg, a network of volunteers dedicated to providing free online access to as many books as they could.

Hart, who is also considered the founder of the ebook, died Tuesday at his Illinois home, said Stephanie Gabel of Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory. He was 64. Gabel did not know the cause of death.

Hart was a student at the University of Illinois when he founded Project Gutenberg 40 years ago. He got started in 1971 by typing the text of the US Declaration of Independence into a computer network that he and about 100 others had access to. In an interview last year, he said the project, and partners it works with, had made more than 100,000 books available for free online."

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