Новости о проекте по размещению в интернете "Хроники текущих событий", на русском и на английском

Дорогие друзья!

С радостью сообщаем, что проект по размещению «Хроники текущих событий» в Интернете (подробно о нем см. http://memo-projects.livejournal.com/5641.html ) перешел на новую стадию! На данный момент текст всех выпусков «Хроники» уже размещен на нашем сайте (http://hr2.memo.ru/w/). Однако, можно сказать, «стрижка только началась». Предстоит огромная работа по редактированию текста. Напомним, что в нем должно содержаться большое число гиперссылок, которые позволят связать упоминающиеся в тексте документы, имена, географические названия и организации, произведения самиздата с соответствующими справочными статьями о них.   Гиперссылки в тексте Хроники были расставлены на подготовительном этапе с помощью программных средств ПЭВМ, но из-за несовершенства техники часть ссылок оказались ошибочными, а ряд имен и названий был пропущен. Всего таких ссылок – более 60 тысяч…

Поэтому мы по-прежнему очень рады любому, кто захочет нам помочь. Если вы на дружеской ноге с интернетом и мечтаете о применении редакторской страсти – пишите координатору проекта Андрею Боброву (bav1978@yandex.ru).

 

Также размещаем перевод поста Андрея о волонтерской работе с «Хроникой», подготовленный Марией Фокиной. Большое спасибо, Мария!

About volunteering for “The Chronicle of current events”

The work of the volunteers.

Franklin also said that if everyone

worked, then a four-hour work

day would be sufficient.

 Thought of Wilhelm Liebknecht

The preparatory work on the scientific publication “The Chronicle of Current Events” (hereafter – The Chronicle) has reached an important stage – the time has come to present the results of our work to the internet audience. Of course, not everything has been yet completed and polished, but, to our mind, there are several reasons for not delaying any further the publication of the Chronicle. The primary reason is that the Chronicle is a source of information for the “near” history, the history of recent past. The witnesses and participants of the events described in the Chronicles, luckily, have not yet passed into legend (i.e. they are still living) and there are millions of their contemporaries having first-hand experience of the era [i]. A lot of them use the internet[ii]. These people have at their disposal an immeasurably larger volume of information about the 1960-80’s than our research group.

 

Our aim is to make available to these people and to those who are interested in Russian history the chance to take part in the research process. Participation is possible in many different forms. Any input, as small as making us aware of mistakes in our texts, will be greatly appreciated, while the sharing of memories about the events and people involved would be phenomenal. 

The text of the Chronicle is already uploaded to our website (http://hr2.memo.ru/w/).

• If our aim is interesting to you…
• If you, like us, feel that in the 21^st century it is not very “progressive” to be documenting the history of the “near past” without utilizing the advantages of the internet…
• If you have the desire and time to write about the “near past”…. 

Then now you have a wonderful opportunity to work for us. Well, not really for us of course but, rather, together with us.

The internet provides an opportunity for people from all sorts of places, sometimes rather distant and even those abroad, to contribute to this work.  All that is left is to explain how they can join us. In other words, to write a short guide of how one can participate in the internet publication of the Chronicles. And so, with that in mind I have taken on the task of writing this guide.

Several things are required in order to make our goals a reality:

 

1. Our wonderful website (created on the basis of Wiki-technology)  

 

2. The actual text of the Chronicles (edited and proof-read, although still not without errors)

 

3. Us (The International Society “Memorial”)

 

4. You (volunteers – people willing to donate their time)

 

In order to clarify what the work of a volunteer (point 4 in the list) consists of, we will take a look at each of the elements of this list individually.  

1. Our wonderful website.

Our website was created on the basis of Wiki technology, the most famous example of the utilization of this technology on the internet is the Wikipedia website itself.

A more detailed but at the same time broader description of this technology can be found in the internet on websites such as http://ru.wikibooks.org/wiki/Вики, consequently I will mention only the points most relevant to our project:

1. The capability of repeated editing of a text using the wiki Web site.

2. Unique markup language – the so called “wikitext”  that allows for quick and easy placement of structural elements and hyperlinks within the text.

3. A record of changes (versions): the ability to compare text versions and to restore earlier versions. 

4. Separation of the content into individual web pages.

5. Hyperlinking – interconnection of individual pages and subsections of the website via hyperlinks imbedded in the text.

6. Unlimited number of comments and editors.

In terms of content, the structure of the site is composed of two parts:

1. The text of the Chronicle issues - the “bones” - of the project (the text is already uploaded).

2. Articles and commentary about people, localities, organizations, literature works and events mentioned in the text (reference database) - the “meat” - that will slowly fuse to the “bones” (this is the next stage).

We are trying to pull closer the moment when any person entering our website will be able to work with the text located there, correct mistakes and add comments. At the moment, while we are still preparing the site – putting materials into it, debugging the data exchange and technical details – only registered users can work on the site (i.e. the editors). In order to become an editor it is necessary to meet with me at our office on Ulitsa Karetniy Ryad in Moscow where you will be able to obtain a username and password (or write an e-mail to me, in case you live far away from Moscow).

We have a site administrator, so we are not alone in our struggle with the machines; however, we are in desperate need of a computer programmer or, in the least, someone who would be able to automate the more basic operations.

 

2. The text of the Chronicle.

As I said before, the text of the Chronicle is now uploaded to our site( http://hr2.memo.ru/w/). What is required now is a lot of work on editing the text. Our text version will contain a large number of hyperlinks, allowing connection to documents, names, geographic locations and organizations referred to in the text as well as associating Samizdat publications with the corresponding reference articles. Hyperlinks in the text of the Chronicles were inserted during the preparatory stage utilizing PC software, however due to software shortcomings part of the links was wrong, and a number of names and titles was omitted. The total number of links is over 60,000.

As you can see, the amount of work that is ahead of us is enormous. So we will be grateful to everyone who answers our call. However, first of all we need require people that are literate and able to use the internet as well as a computer programmer.

To be continued.. 

Project Coordinator

Andrei  bav1978@gmail.com

 

[i] On January 1, 2008 according to data of the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia, 44,785 million people within the Russian Federation over 50 years of age (http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/2008/demo/nas-pol08.htm.)

[ii] Approximately 3 million people (http://www.e-stat.ru/index.php?id=604)