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Edition
Highlights
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Authentic, authorized editions of
the People’s Daily.
54 years of past daily issues and agreement to publish the next seven years.
Past issues condensed into 130 miniaturized printed volumes.
Fully searchable electronic files on eight DVDs.
Six-layer search engine for text files.
Interchangabe Text and PDF files.
Storage space only 1/300 of the original paper volume.
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Order
Form
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Edition
Description
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The People’s Daily is the official voice of the central government of the People’s Republic of China. For the last 54 years,
the People’s Daily has published daily issues that provide the single location where the central government and the Communist Party of China announce their respective policies and
disseminate governmental, political, and economic messages to the public and the world. Most importantly, since its inception the newspaper has been the true barometer of the political climate of Chinese society on a daily basis.
Before the Open Door policy was adopted by China in the late 1970’s,
the People’s Daily could not be distributed outside China because it contained sensitive government information and policies. Once
the People’s Daily became available worldwide, the international community quickly realized that it was the best of the Chinese periodicals and indispensable in dealing with Chinese society.
The People’s Daily is the first and probably the only choice of major libraries and universities in the Western world, mainly because it is the only
edition that provides complete documentation of the official record of the Chinese government from 1948 to the present.
The People’s Daily started publishing in 1948 with four-page daily issues. Over time, the size of the issues gradually increased to the present
16 pages. The total volume of all 54 years of the back issues comes to approximately 170,000 pages. Please note that
the People’s Daily did not accept commercial advertisements until about 15 years ago.
| Table 1
Total Pages of
The People's Daily
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Years
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Days
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Daily Pages
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Total Pages
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| 1 |
1948 - 1949
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732
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4
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2,928
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| 2 |
1950 - 1955
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2,190
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6
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13,140
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| 3 |
1956 - 1990
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12,775
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8
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102,200
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| 4 |
1991 - 2000
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3,650
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12
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43,800
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| 5 |
2001
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365
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16
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5,840
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Total
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167,908
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The management of
the People’s Daily has decided to produce two different products based on the original
edition.
1)
Miniaturized Edition. This edition shrinks the full-sized newspaper page (A1) to the dimensions of a book page (A4), a 4:1 reduction in size, and then the miniaturized pages are bound as books. For the initial years of
edition, the annual issues are bound as one single volume; issues for years in the intermediary period are bound in two volumes per year; and the issues of recent years, due to the increased number daily pages, are bound in three volumes per year. Each volume has about 1,000 miniaturized pages. In total, the entire collection is bound into 130 volumes, which weigh about 400 kilograms, or roughly 900 pounds, per set.
2)
Electronic Edition(e-book). In this edition, the entire newspaper is converted into two kinds of electronic files: one type (PDF) recreates the full layout of the printed page and the other (TXT) is a text-only file. The user can switch between the two formats by simply clicking on the specified icons. The two file formats are fully downloadable and printable individually. The search capability of the electronic edition includes a six-layer search engine, which allows users to insert commands into six different categories for conducting a highly targeted search of contents. The titles of the searched and related articles appear on the screen, allowing the users to select the contents for viewing and printing. In addition, the searched keywords are highlighted in different color on the screen for identification; this unique function is included in both text files and original printing formats of the data files.
The miniaturized and electronic editions will provide new tools for all
China researchers, especially those in industry. These tools will replace the traditional method of manually searching through mountains of individual newspapers.
Green Apple Information Technology, a subsidiary of eBookMatrix Publishing in China, was chosen by
the People’s Daily to perform the data conversion. Green Apple is uniquely qualified to do the job because it has been providing electronic conversion services to
the People’s Daily for the last seven years and maintains current daily electronic
edition of the newspaper on the website: www.people.com.cn, a division of
the People’s Daily. The electronic edition of the People’s Daily will be identical to the online edition already posted at the website. The online edition illustrates and verifies the high production values of Green Apple products.
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Installation
Requirements
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- System Architecture
In the past 20 years or so, the personal computers always had the limitation of processing only one set of language characters at a time, since the system internal operating system could only adapt and convert the machine codes into one set of language characters. This inherited functional limitation of the computers severely narrowed the transportability of the computer systems and/or associated applications from one language based territory to others. The Unicode system from Microsoft was the first attempt by industry leaders to solve this bottleneck for the development of the so called universal machine. The Unicode system imbedded into the operating systems from Microsoft would enable a user of the computer of selecting multiple language character processing capabilities within the same machine. Thus, the user of the computer which is based on one particular language (i. e. English version of the operating system) is able to pre-set the special function of the operating system in order to process multiple language character sets. The Windows XP operating system bundled with the Unicode system from Microsoft was the first successful application toward the unified language solution.
The network version of the electronic edition of the People's Daily newspaper ("SOFTWARE") has been newly developed and enhanced based upon the Windows XP operating system from Microsoft. The developers of the SOFTWARE took the full advantages of the unique features and functions of the Win XP operating system, making the SOFTWARE performing properly without the need of installing a Chinese operating system onto the computer. Otherwise, the server and client computers must use the same software platform (i. e. Chinese operating system) in order for the two computers to communicate and transport language characters back-and-forth. These enhancements of the SOFTWARE greatly expand the usage of the SOFTWARE in the international markets. Since there are few users who would have a dedicated server or client computer of using Chinese operating system exclusively for the usage of the referred SOFTWARE. The user of the computer CAN use his or her respective domestic language based computer for the SOFTWARE as long as it is based on Win XP operating system.
The development of the SOFTWARE followed and applied the latest industry standard programming architecture available to the developers at that time, including operating system, network architecture, Chinese character processing tools, communication protocols and browser based on the Internet, etc. The SOFTWARE was intentionally developed as a networked database, which supports all commonly used communication tools and protocols based on the Internet.
Presently, the SOFTWARE is simply installed on a desktop or notebook computer with an English version of the Win XP operating system. If the computer is not connected to a network, then it performs as a stand-alone system, or a single user system. Otherwise, the computer is also able to perform as a server computer, if it is connected online to a network with a fixed IP address. The client computer with the Win XP operating system can visit the server computer via the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. However, the data files of the Chinese character fonts ("font library") of the SOFTWARE must be installed to the client computer prior to such usage of the SOFTWARE. For the network version of the SOFTWARE, the server computer must be assigned with a fixed IP address, other related information, such as subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server address, etc., should be provided and managed by the network administrator of the network owner. The SOFTWARE system requires NO special software maintenance.
The software system of the electronic edition of the People's Daily newspaper contained approximately 250 different type of Chinese character fonts ("font library"), which covered and recreated about 97 % of the Chinese character fonts ever used within
the People's Daily newspaper publication. The font library forms the entire life of the original pages of
the People's Daily newspaper. The size of the font library is about 160 MB.
In order to read the Chinese character fonts in the electronic edition, the computer requires a Chinese character layer package. However, there are at least four different type of software available on the market, and each one of them reads the Chinese characters differently. Thus the publisher of the SOFTWARE will pre-load the appropriate Chinese character layer software and include it in the package. The pre-loaded Chinese character processing software is the Chinese Version 4.0 of the Acrobat Reader from Adobe.
- Pre-set Procedures
Before running the SOFTWARE, the computer system, server or client alike, requires to perform a number of pre-set procedural steps:
First Step - It is to set the Win XP operating system for processing Chinese character set. This step shall be performed on both server and/or client computer. The procedures are:
(a) to open [Control Panel] of the Win XP operating system;
(b) to locate [Regional and Language Options];
(c) to install the supplemental East Asia languages support:
(d) to set the [Language for non-Unicode programs] to China PRC characters; and
(e) finally to add a Chinese keyboard input service.
Second Step - It is to install the Acrobat Reader software program from Adobe with the Asia Fonts Packs. Again, this Step enables the SOFTWARE system to process Chinese character set by displaying the same onto the PDF files. There are a number of fonts of the Chinese character sets from these Asia Fonts Packs, however, they are quite limited to display a variety of different fonts on the PDF pages. Thus, one needs to complete the Third Step of the procedure in order to obtain the desirable displaying results. The Asia Fonts Packs for the Acrobat Reader from Adobe is available and downloadable directly from Adobe website. The size of the Chinese Version 4.0 of Simplified Chinese (PRC) pack is about 14 MB. If the server or client computer has already installed the English Version 5.0 or higher versions of the Acrobat Reader program, then the user has two options to pre-set the computer to be able of processing the Chinese characters on PDF format through the Acrobat Reader program, namely:
(a) to delete the English version of the Acrobat Reader program from the computer, then to install the
Chinese Version 4.0 of the Acrobat Reader onto the computer from the package;
(b) to download the Adobe Asia Fonts Pack from Adobe's website directly.
Third Step - It is to install the font library from the SOFTWARE package. This step enables the PDF files of the SOFTWARE of displaying the rich collection of Chinese character font library, which has more than 250 styles and sizes. The font library shall be downloaded onto file folder [c:\windows\fonts]. Any client computer is able to download the font library either from the specified CD within the shipping package or from the server computer directly when it accesses the server computer the very first time for the referred SOFTWARE.
In summary, the First Step enables the Win XP operating system to process Simplified Chinese set; the Second Step enables the Acrobat Reader to process Chinese character set on PDF pages; the Third Step enriches the collection of the font library embedded within the SOFTWARE for the displaying of the Chinese characters on the PDF pages.
Note: All above referred steps and their associated information are enclosed in the [Installation Procedures] section of the User Manual.
- System Packaging
Data Loading - The physical installation of the 80-gigabyte SOFTWARE package onto a computer would require many hours of data loading. In fact, the loading of such large data files from the CDs or DVDs onto a computer hard disc would require the computer to run nonstop for more than 72 hours or about three full days. Therefore, in order to reduce the burden on the users, this huge data files of
the People's Daily electronic edition will be pre-loaded into the hard discs in the factory.
Hard Disc Size - The electronic edition of the People's Daily newspaper requires at least 120 gigabytes of hard disc storage space in order to properly perform a full file search. The search engine searches the entire collection of
the People's Daily newspaper (about 54 years, or 80-gigabyte database) as one file for a user-selected topic, keyword, time frame, etc. For computers that do not have the required storage space, users can search the entire database in sections by inserting the appropriate DVDs. Due to the fact that most existing PCs do not have the 120 gigabytes of storage space required to run searches from the hard drive, therefore, the publisher of the SOFTWARE will supply the package of the SOFTWARE on pre-fabricated hard discs, plus one set of back up DVDs.
In summary, the electronic edition of the People's Daily newspaper is typically installed on an expanded desktop or [B1]notebook computer. It should have at least 120 gigabytes of disk space with sufficient [B2]CPU processing speed. In this way, the SOFTWARE and the 80 gigabytes of data files will be pre-loaded and tested in the computer factory. The users only need to click on the icon for
the People's Daily on the computer screen, and then the data files of the SOFTWARE will open without further technical requirements and complications. Thus, the functionality and the performance of the package will be simple and uniform. Most importantly, the technical support requirements of the system will be reduced to a minimum.
- Single User Version System Installation Requirements
In order to reduce the number of technical difficulties that can occur when the purchasers try to install the electronic edition onto their computers, the publisher plans to reduce the technical support requirements and offers a user-friendly version of the package. Therefore, the single user electronic edition will be bundled with the specific hardware platform to pre-fabricate the data files in the factory in order to avoid the lengthy data loading process and other potential technical problem. In other words, the single user version of the electronic edition is packaged with a computer system, which meets the following minimum requirements. In the package, there is one set of DVDs as the back up files for the edition. Please see Figure 1 for the system requirements of the single user or stand-alone computer.
Figure 1 Single User Version System Installation Requirements
Please install the SOFTWARE on a computer meeting the following minimum requirements
| Computer Model |
IBM PC compatible |
| Operating System |
Windows XP |
| CPU |
Pentium 1.0 GHz or better |
| RAM |
256 MB or more |
| Interface |
USB 2.0 |
| Free Hard Disk |
120 GB or more |
| CD-ROM Drive |
DVD Drive |
| Display |
1,024 x 768 pixels or
better |
Note:
1. Chinese character processing software is required.
2. Chinese version of Acrobat Reader 4.0 or better is required.
- Network Version System Installation Requirements
The network version, or multiple concurrent users, of the electronic edition of
the People's Daily was developed and incorporated a good deal of the latest technologies available to the market. Most importantly, the Chinese character processing capabilities of the Win XP operating system from Microsoft and the Acrobat Reader software from Adobe. As a result, one must apply the same software platform in order to achieve and obtain the desired search results of the edition, such as displaying the proper original page(s) of
the People's Daily editions on screen in PDF format.
Specifically, the server computer should be a dedicated computer based on the Win XP operating system. The supplemental East Asian language support function of the operating system must be installed; the language for non-Unicode programs must be pre-set to default support Chinese PRC character set. Therefore, this server ideally would be dedicated for the electronic edition without any foreign applications, since it is set for processing Chinese characters primarily. Please see Figure 2 for the system requirements of the server computer.
The Win XP based server computer can be connected to any network based on TCP/IP protocol, such as Win 2000 Profession server based network. Any client computer within the network can access to the server computer through a FIXED IP address of the server computer. The IP address is provided and managed by the network manager of the network owner. Before the shipment of the package of such network version of the SOFTWARE, the purchaser of the SOFTWARE needs to fill out a [Project Form] and return the same back to eBookMatrix, so eBookMatrix can pre-fabricate the SOFTWARE as specifically compatible to the network of that particular user.
In order for any client computer, it should only be the Win XP operating system based, to be able to display such rich selection of character fonts from the font library, the owner of the client computer must first either install such Chinese character fonts into the client computer by loading the Chinese character fonts data files from a specific CD provided with the shipping package, or one can download the same data files from the server computer directly. Please see Figure 2 for the system requirements of the client computer.
Note: If the client computer fails to install the Chinese character fonts data files, then the client computer would not be able to display Chinese characters on all PDF files of the original pages of
the People's Daily publication. On the other hand, the client computer still can display Chinese characters on all text files of the same publication.
In summary, the electronic edition of the People's Daily newspaper currently supports the network version, if and only if both the client-server computers and the network meet the following system requirements:
(a) The client-server computers must both be based on the Win XP operating system;
(b) These client-server computers can be connected and communicated through any networks operating
based on TCP/IP protocol, such as Win 2000 network;
(c) The client computer can access to the server computer through the FIXED IP address;
(d) The server computer should be pre-set and able of processing Chinese character set; and
(e) For any client computer which intends to access the database of the edition resided in the server
computer, the client computer must first pre-set the Win XP operating system enabling the
processing of Chinese character, plus loading the Chinese character fonts into the client computer.
In order to reduce the number of technical difficulties that can occur when a purchaser tries to install the network version of the electronic edition onto their server computer, the publisher of the SOFTWARE plans to reduce the technical support requirements and offers an easy-to-use version of the package. Therefore, the data files of the network version electronic edition is pre-fabricated onto an external disk in the factory in order to avoid the lengthy data loading process and other potential technical problem. In other words, the package includes an external hard disc, which contains all data files of the network version of the electronic edition, plus one set of DVDs as back up files for the edition. However, the purchaser shall follow the installation instructions within the User Manual and install the SOFTWARE onto the server computer accordingly.
Note: All above referred information are enclosed in the User Manual.
Figure 2 Network Version System Installation Requirements
Please install the SOFTWARE on server-client computers meeting the following minimum requirements
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SERVER |
CLIENT |
| Computer Model |
IBM PC Compatible |
IBM PC Compatible |
| Operating System |
Windows XP |
Windows XP |
| CPU |
Pentium 2.0 GHz or better |
Pentium 1.0 GHz or better |
| RAM |
512 MB or more |
256 MB or more |
| Interface |
USB 2.0 |
No requirement |
| Free Hard Disk |
120 GB or more |
20 GB or more |
| CD-ROM Drive |
DVD Drive |
No requirement |
| Display |
1,024 x 768 pixels or better |
1,024 x 768 pixels or better |
Note:
1. Chinese character processing software is required.
2. Chinese version of Acrobat Reader 4.0 or better is required.
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Pricing Policy
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The single user
license price for both miniaturized and electronic editions
is US$13,995, an amount jointly determined by Green Apple
and the People’s Daily based upon the costs of production. Despite the
relatively long production cycle, eBookMatrix and Green
Apple would like to market the products as soon as possible,
so they plan to release the products in three subsets and to
price them individually. The pricing of the products in each
subset is flexible so that it can be tailored to the
specific needs of end-user organizations.
In order to
effectively market the products at the initial stage, to
better manage the anticipated demand, Green Apple will
accept early orders for all three subsets of the products,
either separately or jointly. Early orders will receive a
discount of 15 percent off the list price of the products.
The orders that are qualified as the early purchase orders,
if the purchase orders have been placed and the cash deposit
received from the purchasers before the actual production of
the publications. The deadline for the early orders is
approximately 30 days prior to the availability of the
particular publication to the market. For example, the
deadline for ordering the first subset of the miniature
edition is July 31, 2003.
1) Full Set of Electronic Edition (1948–2001, 54 Years). Available to the market on the
June 1, 2003.
2) First Subset of Miniature Edition (1992–2001, 10 Years). Available to the market on September 1, 2003. The deadline for early orders is July 31, 2003.
3) Second Subset of
Miniature Edition. (1966–1991, 26 Years) Available to the
market on December 1, 2003. The deadline for early orders is
October 31, 2003.
4) Third Subset of
Miniature Edition. (1948–1965, 18 Years) Available to the
market on March 1, 2004. The deadline for early orders is
February 28, 2004.
5) Annual Addenda
(2002–2008, 7 Years) Available to the market on the July 1
of each proceeding year. The deadline for early
orders is the April 20 of each proceeding
year.
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List Price:
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Single User Electronic Edition Only.
– US$7,995.00 per package
54 Years (1948–2001)
Note: The package includes a single user license, plus factory pre-loaded electronic edition of the publication, an expanded notebook or desktop computer with a 120 gigabytes external disk drive, plus sufficient CPU processing power, the external disk is connected to the computer through USB 2.0 interface, a full set of backup DVDs, XP operating system, Chinese character processing layer package, database search engine and more.
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Full Set of Miniaturized & Single User Electronic Editions.
– US$13,995.00 per set
54 Years (1948–2001)
Note: The package includes a single user license and above-mentioned expanded notebook or desktop computer and accessories.
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Double (2) Concurrent User Electronic Edition Only.
– US$11,995.00 per package
54 Years (1948–2001)
Note: The package includes a network based database search engine, a 120 gigabytes external disk containing the database, a full set of backup DVDs, a two (2) concurrent user license for the electronic edition, installation kit and support. The external disk and network version of the edition will be connected with and installed onto user’s network. Please refer to “Installation System Requirement” section of this documentation for additional information on the subject.
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Multiple (5) Concurrent User Electronic Edition Only.
– US$19,995.00 per package
54 Years (1948–2001)
Note: The package includes a network based database search engine, a 120 gigabytes external disk containing the database, a full set of backup DVDs, a five (5) concurrent user license for the electronic edition, installation kit and support. The external disk and network version of the edition will be connected with and installed onto user’s network. Please refer to “Installation System Requirement” section of this documentation for additional information on the subject.
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Full Set of Miniaturized Edition Only. – US $ 7,995.00 per
set
54 Year (1948 – 2001)
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First Subset of Miniaturized Edition.
– US $ 3,495.00 per
subset
10 Year (1992 – 2001)
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Second Subset of Miniaturized Edition.
– US $ 3,495.00 per subset
26 Year (1966 – 1991)
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Third Subset of Miniaturized Edition.
– US $ 2,995.00 per subset
18 Year (1948 – 1965)
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Annual Addenda of Miniaturized & Electronic Editions.
– US $ 495.00
per year
7 Year (2002 – 2008)
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Note:
The above-referred prices are as of March
1, 2003, and subject to change without further notice.
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Order
Form
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