1. One Transcription at a time
Making History
One Transcription at a time
April 1,2005

2. The Sources of History Oral Traditions Written Records
Physical Artifacts
Written Records

3. The Records of History Books Manuscripts ≈ 5500 on-line repositories
Tens of thousands Archives
Billions of manuscript pages?
Tens of Thousands Transcribers

4. The Making of History Read/Transcribe Sources Read/Transcribe Sources
Extract facts
Write Papers/Books

5. The Emergent Transcriptions Concept
Leverage work of Transcribers
Accumulate Transcriptions
Create Virtuous Cycle
Enable Full-Text Searches
Learn Handwriting
Give Proper Credit

6. 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!

7. The Big Picture Archive Archive Archive MML MML MML MML MML MML MML
Accumulation
MML
MML

8. The Emergent Transcriptions System
Archive Assistant (AA)
Transcription Assistant (TA)
Contribution Accountant (CA)

9. The Archive Assistant Manage Manuscript Images
Couple them with Metadata
Allow web-searches
Serve out manuscripts
Serve out transcriptions
Accept New/Modified Transcriptions

10. The Transcription Assistant
Visualize Manuscript Image
together with its Transcription
Facilitate Transcriptions
Help Read Handwriting
Promote Transcription Submissions
Help Paper Writing Process

11. Figure 1. The Transcription Assistant ™ application interface.

12. 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

13. 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

14. Current Status Rewriting TA Separating out AA Designing CA
Setting up Server (escripts.wpi.edu)

15. Next Year’s MQPs Archive Assistant v.1.0
Contribution Accountant v. 1.0
Transcription Assistant v. 2.0

16. (under Emergent Systems Lab)
For More Information:
Prof. Fabio Carrera or
Prof. Stanley Selkow
Web Pages:
(under Emergent Systems Lab)