

Civil War Project Shows Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing - ilamont
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/civil-war-project-shows-pros-and-cons-of-crowdsourcing/31749?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

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wccrawford
"So far, staff members are spending more time checking the work of volunteers
than they would have taken to do the transcriptions themselves, according to
Mr. Prickman."

I find this hard to believe. You can eliminate the obviously wrong ones
instantly. Just delete them. I feel a compelling need to know why they are
wrong, too, but it just doesn't matter. (The picture given is a great
example.)

The rest, give a cursory glance and file it as provisionally okay. Shouldn't
take more than a few seconds to verify each one this way. Certainly less time
than typing it out, and MUCH less time than trying to decipher the whole thing
perfectly.

Then, either run a second and third round of crowdsourcing and use computers
to determine the differences, or sit down and read them individually. (Or
crowdsource that!) It will still have taken less time that typing it.

