Great Idea

[Conor Cleary]

Hey guys,
I've been following along since the DiggBust and I'm glad it was worth it.
I really like how functional the project already is for viewing users, and I think going after the big book databases is crucial for success.
My only feature suggestion at this point would be an uploader for users to compare their short stories with a standard of reading material. ex. upload a short story (for a school project?) and label it as 'action, romance, science fiction etc' and compare it with with the 'average' short story based on that genre. Does that make sense at all?? 

Anyways, good luck in the process!!

[Paul Kreiner]

You're absolutely right about big book databases -- any data mining project (which is one very large aspect of BookLamp) needs significant volumes of data to make it really shine.  That's where we need to go, but the difficulty there is finding publishers who would be willing to let us use their copyrighted material.  You can see that most of the publishers haven't been too overly happy with Google's book scanning project, but I'd like to think that our approach can more directly benefit the publishers.

[Conor Cleary]

I'll throw a publisher out that might be able to help get a good Canadian foothold - Lone Pine Publishing (http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/), out of Alberta. They are more into books with nature, outdoor recreation and popular history themes, including travel, hiking and fitness guides, gardening books, ghost stories etc etc... but even if they don't contribute as a book-lender, they would be a great start for publishing friends. If you decide to contact them, ask for David Cleary and tell him Conor Cleary sent you and he'll take it seriously. I think it would be a great show of reciprocity.

[Aaron Stanton]

I'm tempted to point this discussion towards the forum that talks about The Publisher's Project, because it fits in line with what you're talking about.  The video describing the Publisher's Project probably won't go up for another few days, but it is certainly one of the most interesting applications, in my mind.

I'm a writer, though, so I have my bias.    And thank you for the connection; as we move forward, it's good to know people.  Not counting the fact that knowing people in the publishing industry, wherever they are, seems worth the time to me. 

Best,

Aaron

P.S.  Now I'm going to bed for the next few hours, if I can help it.  haha.

[Corey Larabie]

I second that this is a great idea and that the lack of a database is the limiting factor here. What about starting with some of the classic materials that are being reproduced by efforts such as Project Gutenburg. Seems like a match made in heaven.

best of luck,
Corey Larabie