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Archive for July, 2011

Transcribe Bentham progress update, 23-29 July 2011

By Tim Causer, on 29 July 2011

Welcome to the Transcribe Bentham progress update for the period 23 to 29 July 2011.

1,625 manuscripts have been transcribed, up 25 on last week, which is excellent progress. 1,367 transcripts (84%) are now complete and locked.

The state of play for each Box of material is as follows:

  • Box 2: 174 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (33%)
  • Box 27: 203 of 350 (58%)
  • Box 35: 183 of 439 (42%)
  • Box 50: 30 of 92 (33%)
  • Box 51: 10 of 940 (1%)
  • Box 70: 153 of 250 (44%)
  • Box 71: 102 of 665 (15%)
  • Box 72: 87 of 664 (13%)
  • Box 73: 113 of 156 (72%)
  • Box 79: 20 of 199 (10%)
  • Box 95: 43 of 147 (29%)
  • Box 96: 255 of 539 (47%)
  • Box 115: 221 of 307 (72%)
  • Box 139: 31 of 584 (5%)
  • Overall: 1,625 of the 5,262 (31%) manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

This week, Transcribe Bentham was featured in a broadcast by Austrian ORF radio, which can be listened to here (though the interview with TB staff was conducted in English, it is translated into German for this programme).

As always, many thanks to those who have taken part in the project this week; we remain, as ever, hugely grateful for your efforts.

Transcribe Bentham on the radio (2)

By Tim Causer, on 25 July 2011

Austria’s public broadcaster, ORF, recently carried out a radio interview with Transcribe Bentham staff, as part of a series of five-minute programmes discussing the winning projects at this year’s Prix Ars Electronica.

The Transcribe Bentham episode was broadcast today at 15.55GMT. A programme description is available, and you can listen on demand to the feature here.

Transcribe Bentham progress update, 16-22 July 2011

By Tim Causer, on 22 July 2011

Welcome to the progress update for the period 16-22 July 2011.

The Benthamometer now shows that 1,599 manuscripts have been transcribed, up 18 on last week. 1,351 transcripts – or 84% of the total – are now complete and locked.

The state of play for each Box of material is as follows:

  • Box 2: 171 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (32%)
  • Box 27: 202 of 350 (58%)
  • Box 35: 173 of 439 (39%)
  • Box 50: 29 of 92 (32%)
  • Box 51: 10 of 940 (1%)
  • Box 70: 153 of 250 (44%)
  • Box 71: 102 of 665 (15%)
  • Box 72: 85 of 664 (13%)
  • Box 73: 112 of 156 (72%)
  • Box 79: 19 of 199 (10%)
  • Box 95: 43 of 147 (29%)
  • Box 96: 254 of 539 (47%)
  • Box 115: 217 of 307 (71%)
  • Box 139: 29 of 584 (5%)
  • Overall: 1,599 of the 5,262 (30%) manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

As you can see, Boxes 73 and 115 are closest to completion, being respectively 44 and 90 manuscripts away from being finished.

We mentioned earlier in the week that ORF, the Austrian national public service broadcaster, is carrying a series of 5-minute programmes about the winning projects at the Prix Ars Electronica, every Monday-Thursday at 15.55GMT. Transcribe Bentham staff were interviewed for one of these features, and we will let you through the Facebook and Twitter page when it is due for broadcast and podcasting.

Speaking of the Prix, the programme of events at this year’s Ars Electronica festival is now available. The Festival takes place in Linz, and this year runs from 31 August to 6 September. Transcribe Bentham will be taking part in the Ars Electronica Gala on 2 September, where the winning entries in this year’s Prix are presented with their awards, and the Prix Forum, where winning entrants talk about their projects; Transcribe Bentham is included in the ‘Public Square Squared – How Social Fabric is Weaving a New Era‘  session.

We will be reporting live from the festival and the various events so, as they say, stay tuned.

Many thanks, as ever, to those who have given their time and effort to take part this week.

Transcribe Bentham progress update, 9 to 15 July 2011

By Tim Causer, on 15 July 2011

Welcome to the progress update for 9 July to 15 July 2011, during which time quite a bit has been going on.

First of all, the Benthamometer shows that 1,581 manuscripts have been transcribed, of which 1,330 (84%) are complete and locked. Box 35 has proven to be the most popular during the last week.

Congratulations to Diane Folan, who has just transcribed her 700th manuscript – a quite heroic effort. In next place is Lea Stern, who has transcribed 197 manuscripts.

The state of progress for each Box of material is as follows:

  • Box 2: 171manuscripts transcribed of 532 (32%)
  • Box 27: 202 of 350 (58%)
  • Box 35: 166 of 439 (38%)
  • Box 50: 29 of 92 (32%)
  • Box 51: 6 of 940 (1%)
  • Box 70: 153 of 250 (44%)
  • Box 71: 102 of 665 (15%)
  • Box 72: 85 of 664 (13%)
  • Box 73: 112 of 156 (72%)
  • Box 79: 19 of 199 (10%)
  • Box 95: 43 of 147 (29%)
  • Box 96: 254 of 539 (47%)
  • Box 115: 210 of 307 (68%)
  • Box 139: 29 of 584 (5%)
  • Overall: 1,581 of the 5,262 (30%) manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

In other TB news this week, the code for the Transcription Desk has now been released and is available to re-use; we look forward to seeing if and how others utilise the transcription tool. You can read more about it here.

And in a week of scandal about phone hacking, you can read Jeremy’s blog on the press here.

Thanks again to all those who have volunteered their time and effort in taking part in the project this week; we are, as ever, extremely grateful.

Code for Transcribe Bentham MediaWiki plugins available

By Tim Causer, on 12 July 2011

As regular readers know, the award-winning Transcribe Bentham Transcription Desk was programmed and put together by a highly-talented team at the University of London Computer Centre, led by Richard Davis. Those who are thinking about crowdsourcing their own manuscript collection will no doubt be interested to learn that Richard has recently made available the code for the Transcribe Bentham MediaWiki plugins here. They comprise the transcription toolbar, support for TEI markup, and support for viewing images. There are accompanying instructions on how to make the code work, and details of other plugins used to produce the Transcription Desk.

To use these plugins, you – or someone on your team – must be familiar with the installation and setting up of MediaWiki on a web server. You should also be prepared for the possibility that some settings within the code are specific to Transcribe Bentham, and be able to reconfigure them for your own purposes.

You may wish to consult Richard’s instructions which will no doubt prove far more helpful than this blogpost. We hope the plugins will be of use to those wishing to use them!

(with thanks to Richard and his team for putting this together)