Project Organization and functioning
The project comprises of a set of coordinators, transcribers and verifiers. Coordinators are assigned management responsibilities as defined in the Management Team section. Transcribers assist in transcribing the talk by listening to it. The transcribed talk is checked by a verifier and finally signed off by the review team headed by the Quality manager, Ann Capozzoli.
Every transcriber and verifier in the project will work with a coordinator and in a few cases may work with multiple coordinators.
The Transcription process
1. You will be assigned by your coordinator(s) a new talk to transcribe or a talk completed by another transcriber to check, whenever you complete your work assignments. You are also encouraged and free to find a talk that you wish to transcribe in your collection.
2. Your coordinator will follow up with you at periodic intervals to check on the progress of the task. Periodic reminders of talks long pending for completion are broadcasted in the project.
3. Upon completion of your task, notify your coordinator of the same. Your coordinator will find another transcriber to assist with checking the talk. You may be required to send the MP3 file for the talk and the transcript to the transcriber.
4. After the other transcriber has listened to the talk, he / she may suggest changes to the transcript.
5. You are required to make changes as necessary and submit the transcript after you have gone through the submission checklist process.
6. The coordinator will review the transcript and accept the task as completed.
7. Your coordinator will then assign you your next task.
HOW TO MAKE THE CORRECTIONS “VISIBLE” TO YOUR PARTNER
Microsoft Word has a tracking facility which can be activated by going to Tools / Track Changes / Highlight Changes. You then tick “Track changes while editing” and “Highlight changes on screen” This will show all your corrections in red and blue highlights. Once you have completed discussions and wish the document to look normal again, just go back and untick “Highlight changes on screen”.
WHAT IF THE TWO TRANSCRIBERS CANNOT MAKE OUT A WORD, OR DISAGREE ABOUT IT?
Because of the limitations of live recording, there will always be instances where absolute certainty is impossible. There may be words or phrases on which the two transcribers have differing opinions and cannot agree, or which neither can hear clearly. Here are some options for dealing with this:
• Put the word [UNCLEAR] in brackets.
• Offer your [BEST GUESS?] so long as you use brackets and a question mark.
• In case of disagreement or uncertainty between two possibilities, simply indicate the two choices – e.g. [HANUMAN or HANDYMAN?] [SAHAJA or SUCH?]
All this means that we are leaving it for the independent Final Verifiers to puzzle over. The transcribers can also leave notes for the Final Verifier if they wish to draw attention to anything.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSCRIBERS
You need a good ear! And a sharp, alert mind, that will translate exactly what you hear onto the page without missing words, or getting them in the wrong order. You also need a strong measure of enthusiasm…and be able to see your work right through to the end.
You must be comfortable and fluent, especially with written English, because if you are not you will almost certainly make mistakes. If you are not fully confident in your English, you can still become a transcriber and try and improve your English language skills as you work. We know that realized souls and yogis can achieve anything and we will be glad to have this project transform your English language skills.
You need to have Microsoft Word and be comfortable using it. If you are going to use a spellchecker (recommended, but be prepared for it not to recognize any Sahaja words!) be sure and set it to U.S. English because this is the standard we use for all the transcriptions.
It will very useful for the project if you can find talks to transcribe, so Access to a good library of tapes /CDs /videos of Shri Mataji’s lectures will be greatly beneficial.
If you do not have a talk collection, you will definitely need a computer with broadband internet connection and plenty of storage capability so that you can download, store, and work with large MP3 audio files.
The sound quality of the tapes/audio files is variable, but it is important that your sound equipment be of a good standard. Transcribing is rarely an easy straightforward process. Headphones should be used if possible, and your machine should also have an efficient rewind, as it is sometimes necessary to listen to certain phrases over and over to get them right.
WHICH TYPES OF TALKS WILL BEST SUIT OUR PURPOSES?
All of them. No distinction should be made. Ultimately we hope to produce accurate transcripts of every available talk ever given by Shri Mataji. In this regard we ask that you take care to check out every part of a tape in case there is more than one talk. For example: some might contain a main puja talk, and then, after a couple of bhajans, or perhaps even on the other side of the tape there might well have been inserted a short impromptu talk given the night before, on those occasions where Shri Mataji has unexpectedly asked for the microphone. This occurs on many tapes. Another tip is not to turn the tape off as soon as Shri Mataji says “May God Bless You”, apparently ending Her talk. There was a period in the nineties when Shri Mataji often said that, paused for a moment, then continued to speak for another few minutes.
If you have access to old, rare talks they will, needless to say, make a valuable addition to this library. If your partner doesn’t have a copy you can make a copy yourself if you have the facilities and send it to him/her.