The problem statement:
++ You could be a librarian, an archivist or a historian. When confronted with a literal + box full of files, the next 3 - 6 months of your life will look something like this. +
++ Let's start by digitising the content. The format is probably going + to be TIFF as it's a recognised preservation format. But it's not a great format + for dissemination so let's convert the images to web accessible formats in case we + end up putting this content online. Step 1 complete - content digitised. +
++ Discovery. Now that we have the content in digitised form, let's find out what + it contains. Who does it talk about? What are they discussing? Why are they discussing it? + What relationships can we uncover from the documents? You will meticulously read, + consider and annotate each and every document in the set, carefully creating + the data structures you need to answer the questions you have. +
++ When you're done, you will likely write some metadata capturing your scholarship and + publish it alongside your work. Then, you'll deposit your research into a repository + of some kind. +
++ And of course, maybe you weren't 'gifted' the box of materials. Maybe you just emerged from the archives + with 2000 images on your phone and your eyes squinting from exposure to direct sunlight! +
+How Describo can help:
++ Describo has been specifically created to help with these processes. There are tools to batch + transform digitised content (e.g. produce thumbnails and webformats); services that + can transcribe and markup the entities described; an assistant to help you quickly understand + what is contained in batches of content and a visualisation tool to inspect the information + you've created around the data. In the end, you will have a specification compliant + RO-Crate that you can then take to repositories for deposit. +
+ + +The problem statement:
++ As we found in the Nyingarn Project, a common refrain from the + institutions holding language manuscripts was "We can't + make the manuscript available because we need permission to do so. But we don't + know what's in it so we can't identify who to ask". The Nyingarn Project was setup to handle + exactly this issue - providing tools for people to transcribe, inspect, describe and understand + Indigenous language manuscripts in order to provide access to its communities. Yet some of the + institutions were concerned with even putting the manuscript into the private workspace where + their questions could be answered. +
+How Describo can help:
++ As a local (desktop) application, institutional staff could use Describo to transcribe, annotate and + describe a manuscript, page by page, without the content ever leaving their computer. However, + subject to appropriate investigations, they could also use the cloud services to accelerate that process + as they have been specifically designed and architected with data privacy in mind. To read more + about that see: How is data handled inside Describo? +
+ +The problem statement:
++ I'm yet to meet someone who would view the image as a great way to spend 4 days of their life. That said, on a planet + with some 8 billion people, statistically speaking, there must be at least a few who would find that + exciting. I'm not judging. It's just that for everyone else, how do you come to terms with a set of + complex and lengthy documents? How do you a) come to terms with the overall structure of the content, and then b) + determine whether the information contained captures all that needs to be captured? +
+How Describo can help:
++ With an AI Assistant capable of reading hundreds of pages of text in a few seconds, finding information + has never been easier. As the interface is conversational (natural language conversation back and forth), + the assistant evolves along with your understanding of the content so as to pinpoint exactly the information you are looking + for and help you find what it is that you don't yet know. +
+ +