Welcome to the progress update for the period 22 to 28 October, during which further excellent progress has been made, and the overall transcript completion rate has increased.

2,092 manuscripts have now been transcribed, an increase of 41 on last week. Of these, 1,843 (88%) are complete and locked, an increase of 50 on last week’s total – several volunteers have been extremely helpful in clearing up previously unfinished transcripts.

The state of progress for each box is as follows:

• Box 2: 197 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (37%)
• Box 27: 234 of 350 (66%)
• Box 35: 224 of 439 (51%)
• Box 50: 39 of 92 (42%)
• Box 51: 35 of 940 (4%)
• Box 62: 24 of 565 (4%)
• Box 70: 160 of 250 (45%)
• Box 71: 232 of 665 (34%)
• Box 72: 118 of 664 (17%)
• Box 73: 118 of 156 (75%)
• Box 79: 60 of 199 (30%)
• Box 95: 44 of 147 (30%)
• Box 96: 338 of 539 (62%)
• Box 97: 5 of 288 (1%)
• Box 115: 226 of 307 (73%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 37% of the 5,580 manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

Box 96 is again racing ahead, with a further 5% of its manuscripts being transcribed this week.

We mentioned the Digital Heritage Award for which Transcribe Bentham was nominated last week, which this year is focusing upon crowdsourcing projects. The other nominees are as follows:

• Digitalkoot (National Library of Finland)
• Old Weather (National Maritime Museum, UK)
• Remember Me: Displaced Children of the Holocaust (US Holocaust Memorial)
• Trove Historic Newspaper Collection (National Library of Australia)

These are all well-established and highly successful crowdsourcing projects of international renown, and we are honoured to be on the same shortlist as them.

Thanks, as ever, to all those who have given their time and effort in contributing to Transcribe Bentham‘s ongoing success.

Welcome to the progress update for the period 15 to 21 October 2011, during which excellent progress continues to be made; since the week ending 16  September, volunteers have been working at the very healthy rate of 47 transcripts per week. Excellent stuff!

2,051 manuscripts have now been transcribed, up 46 on last week. Of these, 1,793 (87%) are complete and locked, an increase of 37 on last week.

The state of progress for each box is as follows:

• Box 2: 192 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (36%)
• Box 27: 234 of 350 (66%)
• Box 35: 224 of 439 (51%)
• Box 50: 39 of 92 (42%)
• Box 51: 35 of 940 (4%)
• Box 62: 22 of 565 (3%)
• Box 70: 160 of 250 (45%)
• Box 71: 229 of 665 (34%)
• Box 72: 118 of 664 (17%)
• Box 73: 118 of 156 (75%)
• Box 79: 58 of 199 (29%)
• Box 95: 44 of 147 (30%)
• Box 96: 311 of 539 (57%)
• Box 97: 3 of 288 (1%)
• Box 115: 226 of 307 (73%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 36% of the 5,580 manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

Box 96 proved the busiest this week, with 3% of its manuscripts being transcribed.

We have had some further exciting news this week, as we learned that Transcribe Bentham has been nominated for the 2011 Digital Heritage Award, which this year is focusing on crowdsourcing projects, and which will be presented at this year’s Digital Strategies for Heritage conference in Rotterdam, 6-9 December. Five projects have been nominated and each will present to the conference audience, who will vote for the overall winner. Dr Melissa Terras of UCL’s Department of Information Studies – and part of the TB project team – is giving a paper at the conference, and will also present TB‘s pitch for the award. You can read more about the Digital Heritage Award here.

Needless to say, we are delighted and honoured to receive this nomination; coupled with a our recent award in this year’s Prix Ars Electronica, this really is a testament to the work of Transcribe Bentham‘s volunteers, who continue to make the project a success.

Thanks, as always, to those who have generously given their time and effort in taking part this week.

Welcome to the progress update for the period 8 to 14 October, in what has proven the single busiest week for transcription since the week ending 14 January 2011.

2,005 manuscripts have now been transcribed by volunteers, up 65 on this time last week. Of these, 1,756 (87%) are now complete and locked, up 67 on last week.

We are delighted to say that we have reached the landmark of having our 2,000th transcribed manuscript! Volunteers have now transcribed an estimated 500,000 words (a conservative estimate); this is a quite staggering volume of work, made all the more remarkable if the TEI-XML markup and Bentham’s frequently indecipherable handwriting are taken into account.

The state of progress for each box is as follows:

• Box 2: 191 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (36%)
• Box 27: 233 of 350 (66%)
• Box 35: 222 of 439 (50%)
• Box 50: 37 of 92 (40%)
• Box 51: 35 of 940 (4%)
• Box 62: 10 of 565 (2%)
• Box 70: 160 of 250 (45%)
• Box 71: 224 of 665 (34%)
• Box 72: 116 of 664 (17%)
• Box 73: 117 of 156 (75%)
• Box 79: 58 of 199 (29%)
• Box 95: 44 of 147 (30%)
• Box 96: 292 of 539 (54%)
• Box 97: 3 of 288 (1%)
• Box 115: 225 of 307 (73%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 36% of the 5,580 manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

Box 71 proved the busiest , with 6% of its manuscripts being transcribed this week.

Thank you, once again, to all of the volunteers who have helped us achieve this landmark, and who are contributing to Transcribe Bentham‘s ongoing success. It is enormously appreciated.

Welcome to the progress update for the period 1 to 7 October 2011, which has once more proved very busy, and in which we have again improved the proportion of completed transcripts.

49 new manuscripts were transcribed this week, giving us a total of 1,940 transcripts. Of these, 1,689 (87%) – up 69 on last week – are now complete and locked.

The state of progress for each box is as follows (including the newly uploaded Boxes 62 and 97):

• Box 2: 189 manuscripts transcribed of 532 (36%)
• Box 27: 232 of 350 (66%)
• Box 35: 218 of 439 (49%)
• Box 50: 37 of 92 (40%)
• Box 51: 35 of 940 (4%)
• Box 62: 5 of 565 (1%)
• Box 70: 158 of 250 (45%)
• Box 71: 185 of 665 (28%)
• Box 72: 115 of 664 (17%)
• Box 73: 117 of 156 (75%)
• Box 79: 58 of 199 (29%)
• Box 95: 44 of 147 (30%)
• Box 96: 283 of 539 (53%)
• Box 97: 2 of 288 (1%)
• Box 115: 224 of 307 (73%)
• Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
• Overall: 35% of the 5,580 manuscripts uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.

Boxes 96 and 27 saw the most activity this week.

You may also notice from the above that we have been able to sign off our first box of material as complete, though this is a little bit of a cheat. Earlier in the week we locked all of the manuscripts belonging to Box 139, apart from those on which transcription had already begun, as a Bentham Project editor has recently finished transcribing the material for a forthcoming Collected Works volume. There are a handful of transcripts from this box needing to be completed, but otherwise we can consider it finished (albeit unofficially!)

To provide an idea of the volume of work which volunteers have thus far contributed to Transcribe Bentham, we conservatively estimate that the ‘average’ manuscript contains 250 words – though some can be up to a couple of thousand words long. On this assumption, contributors to the project have cumulatively transcribed 485,000 words since September 2010. This is an astonishing level of work.

Thanks, as ever, to all those who have contributed this week, and for their efforts towards Transcribe Bentham‘s continuing success.

Two new boxes of material have just been uploaded to the Transcription Desk for volunteers to Transcribe.

Box 62 consists of material largely written in French, mostly composed in 1795 and related to Bentham’s penal code. Those looking for a challenge may find it in this box! The final twenty folios of Box 62 are in English, and deal with the interesting topic of tattooing.

Box 97 is a very different beast.  Much of it is taken up by writings on legislation, but it also includes outlines and descriptions of many other of Bentham’s works.  The final two folios are in Italian. Volunteers looking for relatively short manuscripts to transcribe will find this box to be of particular benefit.

We have around another half-a-dozen boxes to be uploaded in the coming weeks, which will include more writings on the penal code and punishments, the economy, and manuscripts relating to his 1802 publication, Panopticon versus New South Wales.

Happy transcribing!