Back in June, Gavin Robinson and I had a conversation about comments. The problem with comments is figuring out whom they're directed to. Annotations like those in Pepys' Diary Online are directed towards both the general public and the community of Pepys "regulars". Sites built on user-generated content (like Flickr, or Yahoo Groups) necessitate "flag as inappropriate" … [Read more...] about Feature: Comments (Part 1: What is a comment?)
features
Feature: Subect Graphs
Inspired by Bill Turkel's bibliography clusters, I spent the last week playing with GraphViz. Here is a relatedness graph generated by the subject page for my great grandfather: One big problem with this graph is that it shows too many subjects. Once I add subject categorization, a filtered graph becomes a way of answering interesting questions. Viewing the graph for … [Read more...] about Feature: Subect Graphs
Feature: Transcription Versions
Page/Subject Article Versions Last week I added versioning to articles and pages. The goal was to allow access to previous edits via a version page akin to the MediaWiki history tab. Gavin Robinson suggested a system of review and approval before transcription changes go live, but I really think that this doesn't fit well with my user model. For one thing, I don't expect the … [Read more...] about Feature: Transcription Versions
Feature: Illegible Tags
Illegible tags allow a scribe to mark a piece of text as illegible with a tag, linking that tag to a cropped image from the text. The application does the cropping itself, allowing the user to draw a rectangle around the illegible chunk on their web-browser and then presenting that as a link for insertion into their transcription as mark-up. The open questions I have regard … [Read more...] about Feature: Illegible Tags
Progress Report: Transcription Access Controls
I've just checked in transcription authorization, completing the security tasks a work owner may perform. I decided that owners should be able to mark work as unrestricted -- any logged-in user may transcribe that work. Otherwise, owners specify which users may transcribe or modify transcriptions. These administrative features have been some of the quickest to implement, … [Read more...] about Progress Report: Transcription Access Controls