The rich written Persian culture is a unique resource for academic historic studies. There are numerous collections of Persian manuscripts all over the world of which some have been digitized and made available publicly such as the Persian Manuscript Collection of the British Library.
However in addition to these more famous historic texts, one of the most valuable and yet neglected sources in this field is the millions of historic deeds that are buried away in public or private collections or even just bundled up in an old wooden chest in the grandparents’ house and handed over to younger generations which usually in the best case are also stacked away in a hidden corner. These deeds can be read by the older generations and for the young who are usually interested in the more famous historic documents such as royal decrees, training to read is possible through workshops and courses, or under guidance of experts in this field. Therefore a great number of the general public who may or may not have a knowledge of the digital world can be beneficial in collecting and reading these historic deeds.
Projects such as Transcribe Bentham can be a great model to initiate new crowd-sourced transcription projects in the humanities. The different aspects range from digitization of the documents, presentation and availability for transcription through an appropriate interface, identifying the transcribers and organizing, motivating and monitoring their intervention and contribution, and in the end exhibiting the transcribed documents according to the predicted target audience and to be used for research in different fields.
For a successful crowd-sourced project, one of the most important aspects is attracting and keeping engaged those who can contribute and carry out the project and yet control and monitor their intervention to ensure the progress of the assignment. A crowd-sourced project creates a mini digital community which may never meet each other personally yet collaborate professionally to reach a somewhat mutual goal. To kick-start such a project, having an initial idea of the different and perhaps diverse people involved seems necessary to be able to strategically plan the best possible methods of execution. For example whether it will only involve scholars or non-academics are also included? How are the different contributors recognized, merited and perhaps even classified to better organize their actions?
For example in the Transcribe Bentham Project, visitors cannot edit the transcribed texts that have been locked even though they may be able to spot mistakes in the text. Although this measure is probably to ensure the overall quality of the transcription by restricting it to registered members, yet a visitor could be a skilled professional who even if is just a visitor, can leave a positive mark. Perhaps an additional function is necessary to enable their contribution.
Another important aspect is the necessary digital tools to execute such projects. Trankibus, a tool created within the framework of the EU projects tranScriptorium and READ has been made available publicly. Transkribus seems like the perfect tool that can be the initial step in transcribing the historic Persian manuscripts as it is stated that the tool can be used to “transcribe text in any language and with any character set”! This indeed seems like a promising field… As for the feasibility of such project, hopefully soon we will find out!
*Opening Image: A historic miniature painting from the Digitized Persian Manuscript Collection of the British Library (Source: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=io_islamic_137_fs001r)
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