Dr Tim Causer Bentham Project, Faculty of Laws, University College London ([email protected]) Transcribe Bentham team (past and present)

• Prof Philip Schofield (Director of Bentham Project, and Principal Investigator) • Dr Tim Causer (Bentham Project) • Dr Justin Tonra (Bentham Project) • Dr Valerie Wallace (Bentham Project) • Dr (UCL Department of Information Studies & Centre for Digital Humanities) • Richard Davis ( Computer Centre) • Martin Moyle (UCL Library Services) • Tony Slade (UCL Learning and Media Services • The ‘crowd’ The Bentham Project

 Established in 1958  Producing the new authoritative printed scholarly edition of The Collected Works of (1748-1832), the influential jurist, philosopher, and social scientist.  Replaces inadequate edition of Bentham’s works edited by John Bowring (pub. 1838- 1843).  First two volumes published in 1968 and to date, 29 of a proposed 70 have been published, including 12 of the proposed 14 vols of Correspondence. Challenges facing the Bentham Project:

• 60,000 manuscript folios in UCL’s Special Collections, and 12,500 folios in the .

• Around 20,000 folios are transcribed, and we have little detailed idea of the contents of the remainder.

• No digital access to this hugely important historical and philosophical collection, for both staff and researchers elsewhere

• How to increase the pace of production of The Collected Works?

The Transcription Desk

http://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc.ac.uk/td/Transcribe_Bentham and http//:www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham

Transcribing, and the TEI transcription toolbar Volunteer transcript stored in UCL’s Bentham Papers digital repository (www.ucl.ac.uk/library/bentham) Transcribe Bentham quality control process Transcribe Bentham progress, 8 September 2010 to 25 May 2012

From 08/09/2010 to 25/05/2012: average of 39 transcripts/week (2,028/year). From 04/02/2012 to 25/05/2012: average of 54 transcripts/week (2,808/year). A full-time member of staff could be expected to transcribe c.1,800 to 2,000/year, if dedicated solely to transcription. Number of manuscripts worked on by volunteers, 8 September 2010 to 25 May 2012 Number of volunteers Number of manuscripts worked on (percentage) 0 1,347 (81.2) 1 189 (11.4) 2 59 (3.6) 3 19 (1.1) 4 6 (0.4) 5 to 20 22 (1.3) 21 to 50 5 (0.3) 51 to 100 4 (0.2) 101 to 200 4 (0.2) 500 to 999 2 (< 1) 1000+ 1 (< 1) Total 1,658 (100) ‘Super Transcriber’ contributions, 8 September 2010 to 25 May 2012

Volunteer name Began Still Location No. of manuscripts Average MSS % of total transcripts, participating participatin worked on in total worked on per as of 5 May 2012 g? week (3,502)

Volunteer A 28 Dec 2010 N Unknown 89 N/A 2.54

Volunteer B 30 Dec 2010 N US 71 N/A 2.02 Volunteer C 22 Sept 2010 Y UK 1,140 13.1 32.55

Volunteer D 4 Jan 2011 Y US 595 8.2 16.99 Volunteer E 28 Dec 2010 N US 75 N/A 2.14 Volunteer F 29 Dec 2010 Y US 91 1.2 2.6 Volunteer G 31 Dec 2010 Y US 120 1.6 3.43 Volunteer H 4 July 2011 Y US 57 1.2 1.63 Volunteer I 1 Aug 2011 N Australia 38 N/A 1.08 Volunteer J 15 Aug 2011 Y UK 106 2.7 3.03 Volunteer K 11 Sept 2011 Y France 36 1 1.03

Volunteer L 11 Sept 2011 Y UK 115 3.2 3.28

Volunteer M 20 Sept 2011 Y UK 750 28.8 21.42

Volunteer N 9 Oct 2011 Y UK 50 1.6 1.43 Volunteer O 11 Nov 2011 Y UK 181 6.5 5.17 Transcribe Bentham volunteers

• 97% of survey respondents educated to at least undergraduate level; 25% had achieved a doctorate • Two-thirds of survey respondents were female (most ‘Super Transcribers are female) • More than a third of respondents were academics or students at various levels of higher education. Others include those working in the arts, editing and IT. • Almost a tenth of respondents were retirees (several ‘Super Transcribers’ are retired) • Two-thirds of respondents were at least 41 years of age, and a fifth were over the age of sixty

Volunteer motivations

What dissuaded people from taking part? Encouraging contributions: the ‘Benthamometer’, leaderboard, and volunteer ranks

JB/027/026/004 1. For the offender’s own sake … to prevent their giving way to habits of cruelty or insensibility, which where indulged are apt to lead men into the worst of crimes. He who has no feeling for brutes, will have but little for his fellow creatures. 2. For the sake of other men. In some cases on account of others and even of a neighbourhood: considerable mischief is sometimes done by cats and other domestic animals when worried by the cruelties of children; but more particularly in large towns by horned cattle driven to madness by the cruelty of their drivers. 3. For the sake of the animals themselves … To a benevolent mind misery, let it be found where it will, JB/072/214/002 and JB/072/214/003 can never be an object of indifference.

Against such dominion, established as if it is, “insurrection” may surely be said to be a right, if not as some would add, “a duty.” Insurrection, conspiracy, treason, every thing of that sort is accordingly “compassed and imagined”: treason, not precisely against the constitution indeed, but unquestionably against the despotism so lately built upon the ruins of it…

JB/116/275/003 Impact of Transcribe Bentham

• Free access to the Bentham Papers for all, and increased user engagement (www.ucl.ac.uk/library/bentham) • New material for Collected Works • Potential model for large-scale crowdsourced transcription • Press and radio coverage: incl. New York Times; Times Higher Education; Boston Globe; The Sunday Times; Wired; Deutsche Welle World, ORF Radio (Austria) • Award of Distinction in ‘Digital Communities’ category of 2011 Prix Ars Electronica (same prize as given to Wikileaks in 2007) • Use in teaching and learning • Code for transcription tool released as open-source resource (http://code.google.com/p/tb-transcription-desk/), and has been used by the Public Records Office of Victoria