We are delighted to announce that we are seeking 15 participants for the NEH-funded institute, “Building Capable Communities for Crowdsourced Transcription” which will run from Spring 2021 to Fall 2022. The institute will be primarily virtual, consisting of 8 sessions held in approximately 2-month intervals, beginning in spring of 2021 and concluding in fall of 2022.

Institute Aims

This institute aims to assist researchers who wish to use crowdsourcing for text transcription. Participants will learn the common challenges in crowdsourced transcription. By using a cohort model participants will benefit from working with other project creators working towards a similar goal (crowd-transcribed text). Thus, participants will be well-placed to develop other projects in the future, and to assist peers in using the web and software tools they have learned.

Outcomes

  • Each cohort member (and their respective team) will create and run a crowdsourced transcription project over the 18-month duration of the institute

Requirements

Successful institute applicants will demonstrate that they have: 

  • A large digitized collection (or collections) that needs transcribing and which is not under copyright (or for which you have redistribution rights)
  • A vision for the research, pedagogical or public presentation they will make with the transcriptions (this may include the creation of searchable digital text for inclusion in a database or CMS, training data for machine learning models, critical editions of text, etc.)


Only one applicant per project proposal will be allowed to join the cohort. Additional project team members will be encouraged to participate in the virtual meetings.

To learn more about the institute and apply to be part of the cohort, visit the project website http://z.umn.edu/atdhcrowdcohort. We will begin considering applications on December 9. Please share this announcement with any colleagues or friends who may be interested.


Samantha Blickhan (Zooniverse Humanities Lead), Evan Roberts (University of Minnesota), and Benjamin Wiggins (University of Minnesota)