I've been working on developing a program for crowdsourcing transcriptions for the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which is also a consortium of multiple libraries with different levels of resources to dedicate to this type of project. While I've been focusing on open source systems that can cooperate with some value additions that BHL requires (namely, mining the texts for scientific names that can be added as access points), I've done a fair amount of research on the topic. Here's two links (https://library.mcz.harvard.edu/blog/transcription-tools-survey-katie-mika-ndsr-resident ; https://library.mcz.harvard.edu/blog/why-transcribe )to blog posts that briefly surveys some good currently supported options, and I've got a few more write-ups floating around that might be of use as you get started. 

I have to enthusiastically support FromThePage, as a number of others have mentioned. Zooniverse is also integrating transcriptions into its Project Builder (in addition to the Scribe tool already mentioned). Anno.Tate (https://anno.tate.org.uk/ ) and Shakespeare's World (https://www.shakespearesworld.org/ ) are two more interesting projects to investigate. Wikisource could also be a great option for something with more of an "upload it and leave it for a bit" style of project management. The Smithsonian Transcription Center isn't available to non-Smithsonian institutions, but their papers on the subject are quite good, and it could also be worth taking a look at the "#Volunpeer" hashtag for a sense of what the active community is like. Many members participate in several projects across different platforms. 

I'm happy to talk further about any of this too if you have more or specific questions.

Best,
Katie Mika

-- 
 
Katie Mika
Biodiversity Heritage Library NDSR Resident
Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
[log in to unmask] | 281-384-5789
 


On 5/26/17, 3:25 PM, "Code for Libraries on behalf of Kari R Smith" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:

    Also, the Smithsonian Institution has been involved in several successful crowdsourcing projects and have written about them. 
    
    https://transcription.si.edu/
    https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/tag/crowdsourcing
    http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-the-smithsonian-is-crowdsourcing-history
    http://americanarchivist.org/doi/abs/10.17723/0360-9081-79.2.438 
    
    Kari R. Smith
    Digital Archivist and Program Head for Born-digital Archives
    Institute Archives and Special Collections
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts
    617.253.5690   smithkr at mit.edu   http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/  @karirene69
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Owen Stephens
    Sent: Friday, May 26, 2017 9:20 AM
    To: [log in to unmask]
    Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] crowdsourcing transcriptions
    
    Another option might be Wikisource - a Wikimedia property. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page. I was at a session recently where we got to try this for transcription and it seemed to work quite well - there is support for some basic workflow.
    
    I suspect Ben Brumfield would again have some comments as he has written about using Wikisource for manuscript transcription (e.g. http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/wikisource-for-manuscript-transcription.html) - but this is a little dated now, so it may be worth looking at what Wikisource can currently do
    
    Owen
    
    Owen Stephens
    Owen Stephens Consulting
    Web: http://www.ostephens.com
    Email: [log in to unmask]
    Telephone: 0121 288 6936
    
    > On 26 May 2017, at 14:10, Trevor Thornton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
    > 
    > There's also Scribe, developed by NYPL and Zooniverse:
    > 
    > http://scribeproject.github.io/
    > 
    > On Thu, May 25, 2017 at 4:21 PM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
    > 
    >> Does anybody here have knowledge or experience regarding 
    >> crowdsourcing transcription services?
    >> 
    >> Some of my day-to-day work revolves around a thing affectionately 
    >> called the Catholic Portal. [1] The Portal is an alliance of members 
    >> who provide access to rare an infrequently held materials of a 
    >> Catholic nature. Many of our member organizations are tiny, really 
    >> tiny, and consequently they do not have very many fiscal resources. 
    >> On the other hand, they are very rich is primary source materials. As 
    >> these materials get digitized, there is a need/desire to transcribe 
    >> them. (OCR will not be an option.)
    >> 
    >> I was wondering, do any of you know of any services supporting the 
    >> crowdsources of transcriptions, or maybe there is a piece of (open 
    >> source) software allowing me to publicize things to transcribed, and 
    >> then allowing somebody to actually do the work?
    >> 
    >> [1] Portal - http://catholicresearch.net
    >> 
    >> —
    >> Eric Morgan
    >>