Ahoy! Welcome aboard my new blog!

13 Jul 2015 ~ Melissa Terras

I’ve been quiet from a bloggy point of view over the last few months – but behind the scenes I’ve been working hard with UCLDH’s designer at large, Rudolf Ammann, on this shiny new blog space, all of my very own! Design choices are documented over on the about page, and I’m particularly fond of the header image, which is a section of a handwritten manuscript written by Jeremy Bentham, held in UCL Library Special Collections (JB/035/320/001), which has been transcribed by volunteers as part of UCL’s Transcribe Bentham project. The text contains Bentham’s writing on the Constitutional Code – Quasi-jury [1823-26] and the image is used with permission. Transcribe Bentham is a partner in the EU funded tranScriptorium project, in which we have been using the quality controlled transcripts from Transcribe Bentham to help develop modern, holistic Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology. An output of tranScriptorium is Transkribus: software that enables users to transcribe documents with HTR support. So what we see in the image above is the computer recognising Jeremy Bentham’s handwriting. Cool, huh? And sums up the space I hang out in: between cultural heritage and computing science.

I’ll leave up all the blog posts over at my old blogger site (which I have intentionally not linked to from here) to avoid link-rot, but all content, including comments, is replicated here. I do declare the good ship melissaterras.org open! New bloggage coming here soon!

5 thoughts on “Ahoy! Welcome aboard my new blog!”

Barbara Dieu says:

15 Jul 2015 at 2:47 pm

Congrats on your own “new” blog, Melissa ! I also find Dr Ammann did a great job, especially on the header. I find it is not only totally in tune with the purpose of the blog but also provides a discrete accent to the otherwise monochromatic teal colour of the hexagon background and logo. Looking forward to the new posts!

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1. Rudolf Ammann says:
  
  16 Jul 2015 at 5:17 pm
  
  Thanks, Bee! I merely created the space where the header image sits. The choice of the image itself was entirely Melissa’s, and I agree it’s a great choice!
  
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2. Melissa Terras says:
  
  22 Jul 2015 at 4:32 pm
  
  Thanks Barbara! appreciated! The picture is from one of the research projects I am involved in, so shows what we can get up to in this space!
  
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  1. Barbara Dieu says:
    
    22 Jul 2015 at 5:15 pm
    
    I discovered the Transcribe Bentham project through Rudolf, when he created the logo for it and got interested in the Transkribus tool and platform you mentioned in your post as they will hopefully make it easier for me to transcribe my grandfather’s (handwritten) diaries (in Polish) later. I have already registered on the site and downloaded the tool. My intention is to practise a bit on Bentham’s site to get better acquainted with it before scanning the diaries and transcribing them. I have just spent the whole morning trying to make the app work, without much tangible result, which is a bit frustrating when you do not have an IT department to back you up but then nothing like a challenge to spice up one’s life and your designer at large has been most patient helping me make the first steps.
    
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Barbara Dieu says:

16 Jul 2015 at 10:06 pm

Also the handwritten words in the header take you outside the box as they bring some very human asymmetry to the regularity of the hexagons and the frame of the posts… Brill!

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