Distributed Transcription for Citizen Journalism
I put a call out yesterday to all of the volunteers who have already completed a transcription. I needed to re-assign 9 more interviews to be transcribed because of a delay in loading the footage caused by a hard drive malfunction back in late 2004.
I sent out about 18 e-mails and I had my 9 volunteers less than 24 hours later -- even with my website completely offline during most of this time period.
I was surprised about how eager these volunteers were to help out again. I think that Americans are really hungry to get involved with helping out with these documentary projects because they want to feel like they're making a difference both politically and with their frustrations with the media...
I found that a lot of my volunteers were liberals who are living in Red States -- they probably spend a lot of their time being politically disenfranchised from the local and national civic discourse.
I also found that people found the interviews really interesting, and they learned a lot from them. I even had one journalism student tell me that he put his volunteer work on this project on his application form for graduate school.
UPDATE 6-23-05: I asked some of the volunteers to speak for themselves what motivated them to participate either with the first or second transcription. Some of their responses are below.
So getting transcripts for the interview material is a crucial part in the post-production process, and I have a few more ideas for how to further streamline distributed transcription...
The first thing is that I would do everything digitally next time around. I would load the interview onto OurMedia.org instead of burning it to CD and mailing it off to people. I'd probably even enclose it as a podcast on my site.
But OurMedia.org wasn't around back in August 2004 to solve the bandwidth issues and podcasting had yet to make it onto my radar screen as a significant new media development.
The second thing I would do is have 12 volunteers transcribe 5-minute segments of one interview instead of having one volunteer transcribe the entire 60 minutes. People have a hard time spending the 6 to 8 hours of typing out a 60-minute interview. But if the interview were posted online, then this would allow for many people to collaborate on a single transcription, and it'd go much quicker. You could even use a wiki to aggregate the progress as everyone went along, and use up to 24-60 volunteers to transcribe segments ranging from 1 to 2.5 minutes.
I would use an open-source method of assigning and checking out segments in order to prevent replicating any work.
The third thing I would do is to write up a procedure and standards for how I want the transcripts to be annotated and proofread. I have been going through this process myself, because I don't yet know what the interface is going to be for breaking the interview into sound bite chunks.
The discernment of a "sound bite" takes a trained ear and a lot of context for what it is I'm looking for. There is also difficulties in breaking up sound bites and figuring out a way to annotate a series of sound bites that cannot stand alone independent of the previous sound bite.
I'm still figuring these things out as I go along, and when I figure out the Drupal interface proofreading standards, then it'd be great to make a screencast that could train others to do this task. It's definitely a bottleneck to proofread the text before they're posted online.
Anyway, just thought I'd share some best practices so far.
I volunteered because
Submitted by Brian (not verified) on Fri, 2005-06-24 11:45.
1) The most powerful influential institution in this country has become a partisan propaganda distribution megaphone for the worst elements of the GOP and I wanted to do something to about this.
2) I like to help projects that mean something to me.
3) I liked the struggling filmaker request for help theme.
4) I wanted to see my name in the credits! :P
Thanks for the feeback so far
Submitted by kentbye on Fri, 2005-06-24 09:50.
Very insightful and interesting.
It just goes to show me that people are willing to get involved and do things you'd never thought they'd do -- you just have create opportunities for them and invite them in.
Some people at these technology conferences that I've been going to over the past year have told me that they doubt that people would be willing to do the type of work that you're doing -- or the work that I'm proposing for people to do down the road.
I'd like to prove them wrong.
Lars Hasselblad Torres said that people participate in deliberative democracy forums when the following three conditions are met:
1.) Representative – Their community will be impacted by the decision.
2.) Neutral Space – Rely on facilitated dialogue where their viewpoint will be heard and considered.
3.) Legitimacy – The decision-making process is somehow connected a legitimate power structure.
I intend to make to manifest theres three conditions here at EchoChamberProject.com in order to get a lot more people invovled.
Anyway, I wrote up some of my reactions and directions that I want to take this project in a longer blog post here.
Thanks again,
-Kent.
Why I volunteered ...
Submitted by Mark (not verified) on Fri, 2005-06-24 03:23.
I'm not american, and I won't be allowed to step foot back
in your country - a long story that doesn't belong here.
But I'd like to help raise the american public awareness
after the appalling experience I have had both within the
US and abroad as regards your media.
As the world's largest producer and exporter of weapons (your
number 1 export, by the way), your public needs to understand
that a real democracy demands responsibility and action from it's
citizens, and that requires information free from spin. The Echo
Chamber Project appears to be aiming at giving voice
to many who are not heard from, and that deserves support.
With more information at hand, you might have a chance at reining
in the empire hunters and avoid at least some death and some wars.
I don't group all americans in the same box, you're as varied
as the members of the european states, and I'd like to encourage
action and awareness amongst those that have their ears open,
brains functional, and hearts in the right place.
Why I Volunteered
Submitted by Mary Joyce (not verified) on Thu, 2005-06-23 18:11.
I volunteered because the war in Iraq and Bush's re-election bid had set my hair on fire. I desperately wanted to do something about it and was thrilled when I stumbled upon the Echo Chamber project. I immediately volunteered in order to help bring to light the condition of the media today. I sincerely hope that this project will help wake the American people to what's happening and begin to change things for the better.
I volunteered because ...
Submitted by Craig (not verified) on Thu, 2005-06-23 14:55.
It was obvious to anybody with a brain from day one that the Iraq War was about oil and not about Osama Bin Laden or any phony war on terror. Period. If you believe otherwise, you're a sucker. Period.
The media was complicit in the lie and did not do their job. Now we have a war that is killing Americans, killing Iraqis, destabilizing the Middle East, pushing oil prices up to $60/barrel, hurting our economy, destroying our international reputation, opening doors to erosion of civil liberties and condonement of torture, ritual lying by public officials, falsification of government data, massive government spending on public relations (propaganda, to use Bush's own term for it), and, according to the CIA, Iraq is causing greater terrorism. They essentially stopped searching for Osama Bin Laden, perhaps the biggest crime of all given the fact that the Iraq War was engaged based on cynical exploitation of 9/11. And now we're beating the war drums to go after Iran.
The media was complicit in all this and yet refuses any responsibility. Given its treatment of the Downing Street Memos, you can see that the media is intent on defending its role rather than coming clean and trying to hold our leaders accountable. Hearing the media today ask for the Deep Throats of the world to come forward and be heard is sickening given the fact that we have tons of Deep Throats (Richard Clarke, etc.) but that the media has decided to ignore them at best, ridicule them at worst.
As a result, any type of journalism that takes a different view than the mainstream media, and takes on the mainstream media's weakness, and attempts to treat Americans like adults/citizens and talk about the real issues of the war, and move us away from continual Michael Jackson-style media saturation, is good and should be supported.
I'm an American and I love my country. It pains me to see it become as toxic as it has due to the Republicans and in particular the right-wing news media outlets like Fox. I will support any type of journalism that balances the right wing media and gets the truth out past the lame mainstream media. There is no liberal media. We need some.
I Volunteered Because
Submitted by Bob Reynolds (not verified) on Thu, 2005-06-23 12:18.
Kent,
The main reason I volunteered is because I like you. I watched you work at JulieFest. I watched your enthusiasm and energy. I talked to you a few times that evening. I appreciated that you had volunteered to do the project for Bart and I thought "this is really a nice guy -- and I would like to be on his team."
I watched Handi-Camp -- that was fantastic because it didn't just show the camp participants and the camp counselors -- it showed us who you are. The fact that you chose that topic and handled it like you did shows us all a LOT about you and your personality and your soul.
Honestly, there are millions of people who share the same political view that we all share -- there are lots of places in Oklahoma where I could volunteer my time and energy. But it is Kent Bye who I want to help and who I want to work for because I like you.
Bob Reynolds
I volunteered because...
Submitted by Carol (not verified) on Thu, 2005-06-23 12:18.
If the "mainstream" media had been doing its job in the first place, investigating and questioning the rationales put forth for invasion rather than merely acting as the administration's cheerleader and propaganda outlet, there would have been no invasion of Iraq.
And the media still didn't question when it was shown that Iraq posed no threat to the US and the administration's rationales went from "disarming Saddam" to "freedom & democracy for the Iraqi people."
And now, when it's been shown that George W Bush lied to Congress and the American people, they STILL aren't questioning.
We need a media with the courage to question, not parrot the party line. That's why I volunteered.
I volunteered because...
Submitted by biltzsche on Thu, 2005-06-23 02:13.
...I felt in a small way that I was helping to bring out the truth about our "mainstream" media. It made me feel more useful than just signing off on letters and petitions from progressive websites. Thanks for what you're doing, Kent. I hope I can be of service to you in the future.
Bill Iltzsche
I volunteered because...
Submitted by Augustino (not verified) on Wed, 2005-06-22 21:24.
These reasons, in order of importance to me, sound pretty damn mundane to me, but here goes:
1) Bartcop sent me.
2) I know you from JulieFest 2002, the fundraiser where I met you; I've seen your work; it's good.
3) I'm a filmmaker, scriptwriter and a hopeful producer. I want to help you succeed, too.
4) Transcriptions and editing and typing and proofreading are some of my strongest skills. It's easy for me to do, compared with a lot of people. And, I don't do it all day, so it's not a drag for me.
5) My interview was with a dry, legal scholar, but DAMN it was FASCINATING. It was about international law, a subject I knew next to nothing about, and I was spellbound--even though it was a sort of difficult task to finish. International law is more loosey-goosey and open to interpretation than I had ever known before.
6) Got to give back something, somewhere, somehow, and as a poor but professional musician, I can't always donate money. But I can donate my time and talents, and you gave me a way to do it.
Make it GOOD, now! Let's knock 'em dead with this doc! Distribution, anyone?
Try Mark Cuban...He just made a mint with "Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room"...
Later, Daddy-O!
Augustino
I volunteered because...
... I was tired of feeling marginalized and denigrated by the garbage that passes for journalism by and large in the mainstream media. This project has given me something that I can believe in. It makes me feel like I can make a difference. Plus, I feel that Kent is a genius and definitely has the analytical mindset, enthusiasm, and energy to make this project successful and a force for positive change. We have lived under one of the most tyrannical and stupid administrations in the history of the United States for 5 years now and that is 5 years too long! When all of us ants realize that if we are organized we can take on the grasshoppers, then the master class is in for a world of hurt.