One Transcription at a time Making History One Transcription at a time April 1,2005
The Sources of History Oral Traditions Written Records Physical Artifacts Written Records
The Records of History Books Manuscripts ≈ 5500 on-line repositories Tens of thousands Archives Billions of manuscript pages? Tens of Thousands Transcribers
The Making of History Read/Transcribe Sources Read/Transcribe Sources Extract facts Write Papers/Books
The Emergent Transcriptions Concept Leverage work of Transcribers Accumulate Transcriptions Create Virtuous Cycle Enable Full-Text Searches Learn Handwriting Give Proper Credit
The Overall Philosophy Stimulate Tipping-point Emergence Give Away all Software Make Transcription app the “hook” Give substantial Quid-pro-quos Be Generous with Credit Entice Use through Incentives Accumulate Transcriptions!
The Big Picture Archive Archive Archive MML MML MML MML MML MML MML Accumulation MML MML
The Emergent Transcriptions System Archive Assistant (AA) Transcription Assistant (TA) Contribution Accountant (CA)
The Archive Assistant Manage Manuscript Images Couple them with Metadata Allow web-searches Serve out manuscripts Serve out transcriptions Accept New/Modified Transcriptions
The Transcription Assistant Visualize Manuscript Image together with its Transcription Facilitate Transcriptions Help Read Handwriting Promote Transcription Submissions Help Paper Writing Process
Figure 1. The Transcription Assistant ™ application interface.
The Contribution Accountant Compare Transcription with existing Compare Boxing with existing Give Provisional Credit for Changes Maintain Attribution Tree Maintain Transcription Versions Re-evaluate Credit on Consensus Assign Credibility to submitters Weigh Submissions
The Technology Linux or Windows OS Apache Server My SQL Database Open-source Java Applications Standards Manuscript Markup Language (MML) XPeg Metadata Superset ETS Metadata Superset
Current Status Rewriting TA Separating out AA Designing CA Setting up Server (escripts.wpi.edu)
Next Year’s MQPs Archive Assistant v.1.0 Contribution Accountant v. 1.0 Transcription Assistant v. 2.0
(under Emergent Systems Lab) For More Information: Prof. Fabio Carrera (carrera@wpi.edu) or Prof. Stanley Selkow (sms@wpi.edu) Web Pages: www.wpi.edu/~carrera (under Emergent Systems Lab)