Comments on: Europeana

Europeana

stbalbach — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:36:15 -0800

Europeana is the new EU digital library. It gives multilingual access to two million digitized books and other items of cultural and historical significance held in over 1,000 institutions in the 27 EU states. There will be 10 million by 2010. Soon after its launch the website froze, its servers overwhelmed by over "10 million hits an hour".

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:43:49 -0800

I would post to thank you for bringing this marvellous resource to my notice but I'm afraid it's taking me ages to read all the links.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:55:50 -0800

The entire site seems to be frozen for me right now, so I can't access the two million books from 1,000 institutions. I'm going to go ahead and blame this on the crushing power of traffic from Metafilter.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:57:44 -0800

I'm able to get through intermittently.

By: Lush

Lush — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:57:58 -0800

This would be so wonderful if I could access it!

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:03:34 -0800

I was only joking with the first post - and now I'm getting 503 errors too. It'll all still be there once the fuss has died down I'm sure.

By: soundofsuburbia

soundofsuburbia — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:10:32 -0800

I, at least, get lots of small thumbnails of Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine du monde" at the portal page. Haha, figures! Give people "access to two million digitized books and other items of cultural and historical significance" and they immediately start looking for nakedness! Seems like an amazing site, though. I shall explore it later.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:17:47 -0800

This is a post about an inaccessible site?

By: Lord_Pall

Lord_Pall — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:29:00 -0800

How do we know this entire post isn't a LIE?

By: Gratishades

Gratishades — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:54:30 -0800

As the link is taking ages to load I'm mulling over the name; is the term Europeana meant to recall Americana or does it mean something in one of the other European languages?

By: nosila

nosila — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:05:46 -0800

That's so exactly what would happen if a site like this launched in the U.S. It would be, like, sooo overloaded and stuff.

By: digaman

digaman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:11:53 -0800

One isn't seeing it. Perhaps you should have waited a day or two before doing the FPP.

By: adamficekblog

adamficekblog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:12:40 -0800

wow thatspretty impressive,thanks

By: digaman

digaman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:21:49 -0800

Heh, I finally got in, and one of the first thumbnails that loaded was a completely explicit photo of a woman's vagina, NSFW. There will always be a Europe. I look forward to exploring the rest of the site (and not because of the vagina, which isn't my favorite flavor).

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:23:10 -0800

Actually, digaman, that wasn't a photo, but abovementioned "L'Origine Du Monde", a painting by Gustave Courbet, French XIX century artist whose ability to shock and entertain doesn't seem to have faded one little bit since then. Larry Flint probably keeps a reproduction on his mantelpiece...

By: atrazine

atrazine — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:57:26 -0800

Like many other things the EU has done, this is a fine thing with a name that only a technocrat could love.

By: steef

steef — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:26:45 -0800

"Europeana" must have been the name of Courbet's girlfriend.

By: elgilito

elgilito — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:35:32 -0800

Well, according to this Times article, "L'Origine Du Monde" has become quite mainstream after more than 10 years of being on display at the Musée d'Orsay. It's become the Mona Lisa of female genitalia. For the flocks of school children that visit Orsay on a class trip, the only puzzling thing about the painting is probably the hair.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:14:57 -0800

That's bigger than mypeana, but at least mine works

By: paisley henosis

paisley henosis — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:56:41 -0800

Sounds like a great thing, but I've been trying to get through for over twelve hours (not 12 hours straight, obviously) and haven't even succeed in loading the front page.

By: saucysault

saucysault — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:10:16 -0800

digaman, that wasn't a vagina. It was a beautiful vulva though.

By: paisley henosis

paisley henosis — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:44:54 -0800

The Europeana site is temporarily not accessible due to overwhelming interest after its launch (10 million hits per hour). We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December. [on their site]