“Small bets” are ways to experiment with new technologies, approaches, or audiences. The key to these experiments are that they are low risk. If it doesn’t work out, then you haven’t lost that much money or time or goodwill. If it does work out, then you have a new way of engaging the public, enriching your metadata, and increasing use of your material. … [Read more...] about Make a "Small Bet" on Crowdsourcing
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An Interview with Jennifer Noffze of the Indianapolis Children's Museum
Jennifer Noffze, Collections Manager at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, kindly spoke with Sara Brumfield about her experience using FromThePage. First, tell us about your documents. Our collection includes over 6,000 letters written to Ryan White along with condolence cards sent to his mother, Jeanne White Ginder. Ryan was an Indiana teenager who became internationally … [Read more...] about An Interview with Jennifer Noffze of the Indianapolis Children's Museum
What We Learned Building Spreadsheet Transcription
We recently released our new spreadsheet transcription feature, and we're excited about how it can unlock structured data in your collections -- everything from scientific observations to census data. We're already seeing successful & diverse projects like Sewanee's Convict Leasing Transcription Project (part of their Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and … [Read more...] about What We Learned Building Spreadsheet Transcription
Textual Corruption is How Our Brains Work
I had a long conversation with my neighbor about theory of mind yesterday, and it's got me thinking about present-day corruption in textual transmission. Cognitive science is not my thing, but he introduced me to Predictive Coding - the idea that our brains are constantly making predictions about the world based on insufficient data, then (sometimes) correcting course when … [Read more...] about Textual Corruption is How Our Brains Work
Classifying the Mistakes We Make When We Transcribe
When we transcribe handwritten text, we make mistakes. We misread words with difficult letters; we accidentally modernize a word with archaic spelling; we skip a line. Everyone does it, and even though we humans don’t make as many mistakes as computers do reading handwriting, that might be small comfort for people who are trying to do their best at a difficult task. Is it … [Read more...] about Classifying the Mistakes We Make When We Transcribe