[bksvol-discuss] OT - Re: Rumors of My Greatly Exaggerated....
- From: Scott Rains <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 07:17:21 -0700
Roger,
Your observation is spot on. What impresses me about Bookshare volunteers is
that you all are willing to live with the ambiguity of this structural shift
and give the project the benefit of the doubt.
I am in a position to daily make observations and to test whether or not these
changes you see mean a decline in importance or something more benign. My
personal conclusion is that is the latter. If I did not believe that the
commitment to volunteers was here I would not have pursued the opportunity to
remain. There are simply too many interesting things to do in life than to
spend some of it pursuing a goal halfheartedly.
With 21,000 digital books from publishers backlogged in Bookshare's processing
queue there is no question that outsourcers' and publishers' input numbers will
now always outpace those of volunteers.
On your other point, quality has been especially fascinating to grapple with.
The quality we demand of outsourcers and the pride of ownership taken by
publishers is a health nudge to our own as volunteers. Bookshare, by
officially associating with the DAISY Consortium, now has made that public
commitment to a quality standard also.
I observe that there are two fundamental approaches that volunteers take toward
contributing their efforts to Bookshare - quantity and quality. There was a
time in Bookshare's history when that quantity over quality focus was
encouraged. The backlog from publishers demonstrates that we have sated the
institutional hunger for quantity.
Bias exposed I am a champion of quality.
But let me elaborate how this is a bias on my part.
There is a group who contributes scanned books in quantity with many errors and
no desire to improve the quality of their submissions. Let me stress that this
is done by choice and not by an inability to eliminate errors. It is the
choicefulness that caught my attention.
Often these are members who scan for personal use to a standard that they have
become comfortable with. Their goals are to fill out the collection with items
of great personal relevance and to do so as quickly as possible as a unique
service to others. Speedy input for speedy output. I think of sighted
speed-readers who scan print by learning to filter quantities of content as if
it were background noise. I image these contributors reading their books, using
speed reading skills appropriate to that technology, at high audio output rates
that leave me as a sighted reader totally clueless.
From that perspective certain standards of quality are nice but optional.
So when I wrestle with your question about the relative importance of
volunteers to Bookshare on a daily basis I tend to think in terms of the
relative importance of volunteers to volunteers rather than volunteers to
outsourcers and publishers.
The question to me becomes one of justice. How do I advocate structurally for a
subset of our members whose "culture of reading", to coin a phrase. is moving
to minority status as technologies improve and publishers buy-in to book
accessibility?
One way to do that is to spend much of the next six months crafting quality
fully-accessible training pathways for those who want to perfect their skills
while assigning volunteer skill designations and submission workflow paths
customized to this subset of volunteers with unique quality standards.
Details on all that in coming weeks.
Again, excellent observation. Kudos for the courage to name the unaddressed
questions in the room!
Scott Rains
Bookshare Volunteer Coordinator, Interim
________________________________________
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey [rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:41 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Rumors of My Greatly Exaggerated....
I will be interested in that when it comes. My impression was that with the
outsourcers and publisher quality books and the replacement of many
volunteer produced books with those that volunteers were declining in
importance. Note that I am not lodging a complaint. I am just stating my
impression.
_ _ _
"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always
convinced that it says what he means." - George Bernard Shaw
The Militant:
http://www.themilitant.com
Pathfinder Press:
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
Granma International:
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Rains" <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 9:20 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Rumors of My Greatly Exaggerated....
Thanks.
It will be very satisfying to me if at the end of 6 months I have been able
to build a set of resources and procedures that demonstrate to you all how
highly valued what you do as volunteers is to Benetech. After the
announcement I had the excuse to drop in on several people in senior
management. The message came through loud and clear how important our
volunteers are. It will be my job to be part of the team that makes that
obvious to you all.
No rabbits coming out of hats here but we will be forging a project plan to
make solid steady progress that adds up to an easier more enjoyable
experience for volunteers.
Or, as my professors in college taught me, the reward for doing good work is
being given more work. So here's the bargain: I'll do good work so you all
can do more work!
Scott Rains
Bookshare Volunteer Coordinator, Interim
________________________________________
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andromache
[andromakhe@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 5:59 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Rumors of My Greatly Exaggerated....
That is excellent news. Congratulations. It's really great that you're
taking the time to be a part of the volunteer community, as well as
keeping us apprised of goings-on in-house. Sure makes me feel like we
have more of a voice. At least, folks can hear about what we like and
what frustrates us, and we can hear about what's being done to improve
site navigation or mechanics. You're really doing a great job.
Andromache
On 5/25/2010 2:46 PM, Scott Rains wrote:
> Bookshare Volunteers,
>
> I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to remain with Bookshare
> for the next 6 months. My title will be as a Benetech Fellow but my
> position will remain within the Volunteer Department. Many of my
> responsibilities will remain the same however details will be finalized
> when Pavi returns on June 1. I will keep you updated.
>
> Scott Rains
> Bookshare Volunteer Coordinator, Interim
> ________________________________________
> To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
> bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list
> of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
>
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
Other related posts:
- » [bksvol-discuss] OT - Re: Rumors of My Greatly Exaggerated.... - Scott Rains
