I had a really exciting meeting with Susan Connole of Friends of the Ballard Locks FOBL today. I got some books and papers outlining the construction history, and I saw some of the boxes of thousands of old photos they have. All phases of the construction of the locks, all sorts of historic events. They have digitized most of the photos, but they don't have a website yet to upload them to. One solution would be to use Wikimedia Commons to host all the photos, since its free and permanent, and comes with the kind of file structure they need to let people access the content.
The meta data for the photos is on paper tables, so I'm thinking that if we could use OCR to read the metadata, then create a bridge program to fill in the data fields for a mass upload of the images. Do we have anyone who would want to do that kind of project?
Coming along for the drained locks underground tour might be as easy as signing an injury waiver. It sounds like I just need to stay in touch and show up on the right day, approximately when the tide is low in the first weeks of November.
For the August FOBL meeting, they can invite members of the historical societies in Ballard, Magnolia, Wallingford, etc to come and listen to us give a recruiting/training new editors presentation. So we should plan something to present.
There's tons of history to cover on all the public debates over if, when and where to build the Ballard Locks going back to the 1880s. They had a number of lawsuits. The project includes the Ship Canal, lowering Lake Washington, draining the shoreline around Renton, reversing the river flow around the Duwamish, leaving the Georgetown Steam plant high and dry. There's so much to write about, and the historical photos are there if we can go get them. No article yet on Carl S. English, and several other figures who built the Locks.
And they have a whole room of antique tools and equipment used to build the locks, giant rivets and rivet guns, tongs, gauges and instruments. It all needs to be photographed.
That's only the beginning. So we need an outline plan, and we need to assign tasks.
Dennis
Hello,
Could you describe briefly how the metadata on paper can be related to any digital file?
Wikimedia Commons could be a file host. If they want to see the precedent of file hosting by institutions and the resulting reach of the media shared, then http://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/baglama2/ BaGLAMa is the best demonstration that I know. Of particular interest is "Total views in all times", which shows how many times anyone has loaded a Wikipedia article containing one of the used images. Even rather small institutions find good reach on Wikipedia.
Structuring metadata in Wikimedia Commons remains difficult and there is no standard way to do it. One of the more thoughtful attempts to match metadata with a set of files in a mass upload happened with a media donation from the Wellcome Trust. Here is an example file - < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_sides_to_a_question_Wellcome_F00...
I like the idea of this project. I would join anyone else in discussing it.
yours,
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 6:58 PM, Dennis Bratland dennis.bratland@gmail.com wrote:
I had a really exciting meeting with Susan Connole of Friends of the Ballard Locks FOBL today. I got some books and papers outlining the construction history, and I saw some of the boxes of thousands of old photos they have. All phases of the construction of the locks, all sorts of historic events. They have digitized most of the photos, but they don't have a website yet to upload them to. One solution would be to use Wikimedia Commons to host all the photos, since its free and permanent, and comes with the kind of file structure they need to let people access the content.
The meta data for the photos is on paper tables, so I'm thinking that if we could use OCR to read the metadata, then create a bridge program to fill in the data fields for a mass upload of the images. Do we have anyone who would want to do that kind of project?
Coming along for the drained locks underground tour might be as easy as signing an injury waiver. It sounds like I just need to stay in touch and show up on the right day, approximately when the tide is low in the first weeks of November.
For the August FOBL meeting, they can invite members of the historical societies in Ballard, Magnolia, Wallingford, etc to come and listen to us give a recruiting/training new editors presentation. So we should plan something to present.
There's tons of history to cover on all the public debates over if, when and where to build the Ballard Locks going back to the 1880s. They had a number of lawsuits. The project includes the Ship Canal, lowering Lake Washington, draining the shoreline around Renton, reversing the river flow around the Duwamish, leaving the Georgetown Steam plant high and dry. There's so much to write about, and the historical photos are there if we can go get them. No article yet on Carl S. English, and several other figures who built the Locks.
And they have a whole room of antique tools and equipment used to build the locks, giant rivets and rivet guns, tongs, gauges and instruments. It all needs to be photographed.
That's only the beginning. So we need an outline plan, and we need to assign tasks.
Dennis _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Cascadia could partner with UW Library Digital Archives http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/specialcollections. They have facilities to scan a lot of images, and a supply of student labor. And they have been receptive to the idea of CC-BY-ing parts of their collection in the past.
- J
On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 4:03 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
Could you describe briefly how the metadata on paper can be related to any digital file?
Wikimedia Commons could be a file host. If they want to see the precedent of file hosting by institutions and the resulting reach of the media shared, then http://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/baglama2/ BaGLAMa is the best demonstration that I know. Of particular interest is "Total views in all times", which shows how many times anyone has loaded a Wikipedia article containing one of the used images. Even rather small institutions find good reach on Wikipedia.
Structuring metadata in Wikimedia Commons remains difficult and there is no standard way to do it. One of the more thoughtful attempts to match metadata with a set of files in a mass upload happened with a media donation from the Wellcome Trust. Here is an example file - <
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_sides_to_a_question_Wellcome_F00...
I like the idea of this project. I would join anyone else in discussing it.
yours,
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 6:58 PM, Dennis Bratland < dennis.bratland@gmail.com> wrote:
I had a really exciting meeting with Susan Connole of Friends of the Ballard Locks FOBL today. I got some books and papers outlining the construction history, and I saw some of the boxes of thousands of old photos they have. All phases of the construction of the locks, all sorts
of
historic events. They have digitized most of the photos, but they don't have a website yet to upload them to. One solution would be to use Wikimedia Commons to host all the photos, since its free and permanent,
and
comes with the kind of file structure they need to let people access the content.
The meta data for the photos is on paper tables, so I'm thinking that if
we
could use OCR to read the metadata, then create a bridge program to fill
in
the data fields for a mass upload of the images. Do we have anyone who would want to do that kind of project?
Coming along for the drained locks underground tour might be as easy as signing an injury waiver. It sounds like I just need to stay in touch and show up on the right day, approximately when the tide is low in the first weeks of November.
For the August FOBL meeting, they can invite members of the historical societies in Ballard, Magnolia, Wallingford, etc to come and listen to us give a recruiting/training new editors presentation. So we should plan something to present.
There's tons of history to cover on all the public debates over if, when and where to build the Ballard Locks going back to the 1880s. They had a number of lawsuits. The project includes the Ship Canal, lowering Lake Washington, draining the shoreline around Renton, reversing the river
flow
around the Duwamish, leaving the Georgetown Steam plant high and dry. There's so much to write about, and the historical photos are there if we can go get them. No article yet on Carl S. English, and several other figures who built the Locks.
And they have a whole room of antique tools and equipment used to build
the
locks, giant rivets and rivet guns, tongs, gauges and instruments. It all needs to be photographed.
That's only the beginning. So we need an outline plan, and we need to assign tasks.
Dennis _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
A disappointing update about this initiative: it sounds like FOBL is having second thoughts about this initiative. If they reconsidered, we'd still be interested in working with them.
Pine
On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 10:15 AM, Jonathan Morgan <jonnymorgan.esq@gmail.com
wrote:
Cascadia could partner with UW Library Digital Archives http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/specialcollections. They have facilities to scan a lot of images, and a supply of student labor. And they have been receptive to the idea of CC-BY-ing parts of their collection in the past.
- J
On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 4:03 AM, Lane Rasberry lane@bluerasberry.com wrote:
Hello,
Could you describe briefly how the metadata on paper can be related to
any
digital file?
Wikimedia Commons could be a file host. If they want to see the precedent of file hosting by institutions and the resulting reach of the media shared, then http://tools.wmflabs.org/glamtools/baglama2/ BaGLAMa is the best demonstration that I know. Of particular interest is "Total views in all times", which shows how many times anyone has loaded
a
Wikipedia article containing one of the used images. Even rather small institutions find good reach on Wikipedia.
Structuring metadata in Wikimedia Commons remains difficult and there is
no
standard way to do it. One of the more thoughtful attempts to match metadata with a set of files in a mass upload happened with a media donation from the Wellcome Trust. Here is an example file - <
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_sides_to_a_question_Wellcome_F00...
I like the idea of this project. I would join anyone else in discussing
it.
yours,
On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 6:58 PM, Dennis Bratland < dennis.bratland@gmail.com> wrote:
I had a really exciting meeting with Susan Connole of Friends of the Ballard Locks FOBL today. I got some books and papers outlining the construction history, and I saw some of the boxes of thousands of old photos they have. All phases of the construction of the locks, all
sorts
of
historic events. They have digitized most of the photos, but they don't have a website yet to upload them to. One solution would be to use Wikimedia Commons to host all the photos, since its free and permanent,
and
comes with the kind of file structure they need to let people access
the
content.
The meta data for the photos is on paper tables, so I'm thinking that
if
we
could use OCR to read the metadata, then create a bridge program to
fill
in
the data fields for a mass upload of the images. Do we have anyone who would want to do that kind of project?
Coming along for the drained locks underground tour might be as easy as signing an injury waiver. It sounds like I just need to stay in touch
and
show up on the right day, approximately when the tide is low in the
first
weeks of November.
For the August FOBL meeting, they can invite members of the historical societies in Ballard, Magnolia, Wallingford, etc to come and listen to
us
give a recruiting/training new editors presentation. So we should plan something to present.
There's tons of history to cover on all the public debates over if,
when
and where to build the Ballard Locks going back to the 1880s. They had
a
number of lawsuits. The project includes the Ship Canal, lowering Lake Washington, draining the shoreline around Renton, reversing the river
flow
around the Duwamish, leaving the Georgetown Steam plant high and dry. There's so much to write about, and the historical photos are there if
we
can go get them. No article yet on Carl S. English, and several other figures who built the Locks.
And they have a whole room of antique tools and equipment used to build
the
locks, giant rivets and rivet guns, tongs, gauges and instruments. It
all
needs to be photographed.
That's only the beginning. So we need an outline plan, and we need to assign tasks.
Dennis _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia 206.801.0814 lane@bluerasberry.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list Wikimedia-Cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia
wikimedia-cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org