Making History

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Making History
One Transcription at a time

April 1,2005
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The Sources of History

• Oral Traditions
• Written Records
• Physical Artifacts

• Written Records

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The Records of History

• Books
• Manuscripts
• 5500 on-line repositories
• Tens of thousands Archives
• Billions of manuscript pages?
• Tens of Thousands Transcribers

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The Making of History

• Read/Transcribe Sources
• Extract facts
• Write Papers/Books

• Read/Transcribe Sources

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The Emergent Transcriptions Concept

• Leverage work of Transcribers
• Accumulate Transcriptions
• Create Virtuous Cycle
• Enable Full-Text Searches
• Learn Handwriting
• Give Proper Credit

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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!

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The Big Picture
Archive
Archive
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The Emergent Transcriptions System

• Archive Assistant (AA)
• Transcription Assistant (TA)
• Contribution Accountant (CA)

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Demonstration

• Managing Manuscript Images
• Searching and Obtaining Sources
• Transcribing and Submitting
• Giving and Receiving Credit
• The Emergent System

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DEMO
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The Archive Assistant

• Manage Manuscript Images
• Couple them with Metadata
• Allow web-searches
• Serve out manuscripts
• Serve out transcriptions
• Accept New/Modified Transcriptions

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The Transcription Assistant

• Visualize Manuscript Image
• together with its Transcription
• Facilitate Transcriptions
• Help Read Handwriting
• Promote Transcription Submissions
• Help Paper Writing Process

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(No Transcript)
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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

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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

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Manuscript Transcription Process
Requests
Inform
Publishes
Receives
Collates
Creates
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Current Status
Intuitive Interface WYSIWYG Output
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fontSize"24 fontType"Monotype Corsiva"gt
JHS
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montes lt/delgt Fri-Dec-06-14_25_59-EST-2002
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montes lt/delgt
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Proposed MQPs

• TEI Compatible
• Intuitive Interface
• WYSIWYG Output
• Handwriting recognition

?
Word Relation DB
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Proposed MQP 1

• Automated Word Boxing and Handwriting Recognition

?
Word Relation DB
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Proposed MQP 2

• Client-Server connection.
• Create Rating System for Submitted Manuscripts.

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Current Status

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

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Next Years MQPs

• Archive Assistant v.1.0
• Contribution Accountant v. 1.0
• Transcription Assistant v. 2.0

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For More Information Prof. Fabio
Carrera (carrera_at_wpi.edu) or Prof. Stanley
Selkow (sms_at_wpi.edu) Web Pages www.wpi.edu/car
rera (under Emergent Systems Lab)
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Short-Term Goals

• TA v.2 in January
• AA v.1 in January
• Beta-Testing until March
• Grant Proposals
• Papers

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Medium-Term Goals

• CA v.1 in May?
• Expanded Beta over Summer
• AY 2005-2006 Grad Student
• More Grant Proposals
• More Papers
• Tipping-point analysis

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Long-Term Goals

• Self-perpetuating code (Open-Source)
• Growing multi-lingual submissions
• Ever-improving crediting algorithm
• Tipping-point
• Emergence

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escripts.wpi.edu
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General Collaborations

• Providing Feedback and Comments
• Providing Funding
• Beta-testing
• Seeking Funding
• Co-advising
• Co-publishing
• Contacts

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Pre Beta-Testing

• Creating Manuscript Image Archives
• Importing MARC or other metadata
• Coupling Metadata with Images
• Importing Existing Transcriptions
• Coupling them with Manuscripts

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Beta-Testing

• Install Archive Assistant
• Allowing On-Line Searches
• Serving Out MMLs
• Accepting Transcriptions
• Giving Credit

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Full Implementation

• Own Server
• Leveraging Transcribers
• Creating Emergence
• Inter-Archive Searches