Let’s talk about what happens after crowdsourcing projects are done. There are two things to think about here: what happens to the volunteer community, and what happens to the data? In this newsletter we’re going to dive deep into the first. Just like we have a responsibility not to waste volunteers’ labor, successful projects recognize that volunteers make social … [Read more...] about How To Wrap Up A Transcription Project
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Crowdsourcing Project or Crowdsourcing Program?
Are you running -- or do you want to run -- a crowdsourcing project or a crowdsourcing program? They are different! We’ve noticed over the years that folks have different attitudes and approaches to crowdsourcing projects. Some do a single project and are done – at least until the next research question or grant funding comes along. Others invest in a … [Read more...] about Crowdsourcing Project or Crowdsourcing Program?
Transcriptions, Screen Readers, and ChatGPT
Usually, when we transcribe documents, we type what we see, retaining irregular spelling and punctuation. But does this practice–a scholarly standard–serve everyone? I wondered how screen readers deal with verbatim transcriptions, so I ran an experiment. I used Microsoft Narrator, the screen reader built into Windows, to read passages aloud from a 19th-century … [Read more...] about Transcriptions, Screen Readers, and ChatGPT
What Machines Can’t Replace: Old Fashioned Human Efforts
Let’s talk about transcription in scholarly editions – those collections of “papers” by or about historical or literary figures, published for readers and researchers. There are basically three ways edition projects transcribe papers. The first is the old-school way with staff members doing it manually. The second is a group effort, which can be done through crowdsourcing … [Read more...] about What Machines Can’t Replace: Old Fashioned Human Efforts
Archives as an Antidote for ChatGPT
I wanted to write this month about ChatGPT, and how archives are about as anti-ChatGPT as you can get. Archives can provide learning experiences that ChatGPT can’t fake. First, a simplification that’s useful in thinking about what ChatGPT (and its ilk) can – and can’t – do. ChatGPT is, in technical terms, a “large language model”. That means that the creators fed it massive … [Read more...] about Archives as an Antidote for ChatGPT