BIG NEWS! Transcription and indexing has begun! You can see it over here at FromThePage.com!

During Phase One, I’d planned to be the only transcriber, so I could get a feel for the process and come up with some guidelines. I wasn’t going to make it available until it was completely transcribed, but I’m too excited and I want y’all to be able to see it sooner than later, so I’ve made it public now. You can sign up for an account and play around with it, if you’d like.* Please leave a note on the transcription page or email me with any questions, suggestions or whatever. The more input the better.

So far, I’ve transcribed about half of Geek Weekly #1, and it’s been super fun! The indexing feature works great and it’s all relatively intuitive to use. Good work, Ben!

One of the fun problems I’ve encountered already is how to represent graphic images — and the related, how to represent oddly-positioned text and images. And I’ll need to write up a little guide so that we can maintain some consistency across contributors. I don’t know yet how much QA I’ll need to do. We shall see…

I was hoping to have Phase One complete by August 1st, but that did not come to pass. My new goal is mid-September. At that time, I’ll call a meeting of interested (local) parties. I’ll present my Phase One findings and we can start planning for Phase Two, which will be much like Phase One but with about 20x the number of pages, as well as contributing authors, original artwork and who knows what. I have a list of people who have expressed interest in the project who I’ll be contacting, but do feel free to drop me a line if you want in.

Oh, and a brief infrastructure/fundraising note: I have realized that it is completely ridiculous to use an iPad for one thing. I continue to use it for this project, but I have co-opted it for my own personal/professional use, as well. Because of this, I am now only requesting donations to cover my hosting costs. For now, I’m only out about $100 (for hosting this site). FromThePage may charge me a nominal hosting fee in future, but so far it’s been free. If donations get to $100, I’ll remove the fundraising button. This ain’t no profit venture.

* I found the interface easy to use, with maybe a hiccup or two. There’s not much guidance available on the site yet, so if you find it confusing, maybe wait to play with transcription until I get the guide together. There’ll be some how-to info and and FAQ section, both specific to the Fanzine Project.