Lessons from Transcribe Bentham
- 1. ‘How <del>not</del> to run a crowdsourcing project: lessons from Transcribe Bentham' Dr Valerie Wallace, History Programme, VUWDr Valerie Wallace, History Programme, VUW (valerie.wallace@vuw.ac.nz)(valerie.wallace@vuw.ac.nz)
- 2. The Bentham ProjectThe Bentham Project • Established in 1959 • Produces The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the influential jurist, reformer, and philosopher. • First two volumes published in 1968 and to date, 28 of a proposed 70 have been published, including 12 of the proposed 14 vols of Correspondence.
- 3. Challenges facing the Bentham Project:Challenges facing the Bentham Project: How to speed up editorial production and create a searchable, accessible digital resource? Answer: Crowdsource transcription In 2010 40,000 of 72,500 manuscripts were untranscribed
- 4. The Transcription DeskThe Transcription Desk http://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc.ac.uk/td/Transcribe_Bentham and http//:www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham
- 7. Process of checking volunteer transcriptsProcess of checking volunteer transcripts
- 8. Legacy transcr ipts PROJECT WEBSITEPROJECT EDITORS DIGITAL REPOSITORY Images Metada ta TEI transcri pts Retro- conversion to TEI Quality assurance Manuscri pts Training material s Registra tion Discussi on forum Transcription tool Ideas bank BlogWeb pages Folio catalo gue TRANSCRIPTION WIKI TEI Transcripts COLLECTED WORKS Courtesy of Martin Moyle, UCL Library Services
- 9. Volunteer transcript stored in UCL’s Bentham Papers digitalVolunteer transcript stored in UCL’s Bentham Papers digital repository (www.ucl.ac.uk/library/bentham)repository (www.ucl.ac.uk/library/bentham)
- 11. Some results from Transcribe Bentham • 2410 registered accounts • 362 active transcribers • 15 super transcribers • 5205 transcribed manuscripts (c.2.6 million words) (As of 8 March 2013)
- 12. Manuscripts worked on by volunteers, 8 September 2010 to 8 March 2013 Number of manuscripts worked on Number of volunteers (percentage) 0 2048 (84.9) 1 225 (9.3) 2 66 (2.7) 3 24 (0.9) 4 6 (0.2) 5 to 20 25 (1) 21 to 50 3 (0.1) 51 to 100 5 (0.2) 101 to 200 3 (0.1) 201 to 500 2 (<0.1) 501 to 999 1 (<0.1) 1000+ 2 (<0.1) Total 2410 (100)
- 13. Some tips on project management: • Don’t get lost in translation. The team must communicate effectively. • Don’t underestimate the time it takes to manage volunteers. • Simplify the task as much as possible • Funding runs out fast. Think ahead. • Tools are quickly rendered obsolete. Be ready to adapt. • Secure the right publicity!
- 14. • Code for Transcribe Bentham MediaWiki plugins: http://code.google.com/p/tb-transcription-desk/, last accessed 15 June 2012. Public Records Office of Victoria
- 15. For more information see: • Tim Causer, Justin Tonra, and Valerie Wallace, ‘Transcription Maximized; Expense Minimized? Crowdsourcing and Editing The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham’, Literary and Linguistic Computing, 27/2 (2012) • Tim Causer and Valerie Wallace, ‘Building a Volunteer Community: Results and Findings from Transcribe Bentham’, 6/2 (2012), http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000125/000125.html