I Need Some Greek Typists

Recently I asked one of the members of my Greek reading group (Nina) to do some digitization work for me. I started typing up Pseudo-Lucian’s "The Ass" and have made some progress, but I haven’t had enough time to make a lot. So, I decided to pay her to do it for me. She said she was interested but I don’t really have her on a time frame, so I am not sure when it will be completed. When she is done I will, of course, share it with all of you.

There are other things that I want digitized as well. If you are interested, or know someone who might be, do let me know. Here are the terms that I have in place for her for the first document. Essentially, I am paying her .8 cents per word typed. So how much she (or anyone else) would get paid per hour is determined by their speed. Here are some numbers so you can get a basic idea of how you might get paid:

Rate	WPM	Hourly Rate
$0.008	20	$9.60
$0.008	30	$14.40
$0.008	40	$19.20
$0.008	50	$24.00
$0.008	60	$28.80
$0.008	70	$33.60
$0.008	80	$38.40
$0.008	90	$43.20
$0.008	100	$48.00

At slower rates the pay will not be all that great, but even at a slow rate of 20 wpm the minimum wage is topped. At 40 wpm the rate is pretty good. I would be surprised if someone made it to 100 wpm, but there is the rate for your reference. It is difficult to tell on this sort of thing on what is fair and what is not for both parties. That is a rate that I can afford without too much pain. If I were to raise it less would get digitized, and if someone were to gain proficiency in typing Greek then they can make a decent wage.

I would appreciate feedback on the rate. Thanks also to Roger for some ideas on this that he shared offline. If you think that the rate is too low, though, don’t blame him. I came up with the rate.

Requirements

So here is a basic rundown of the requirements.

First, the text has to be in Unicode. If you are interested in doing this but don’t know what Unicode is let me know and I will give you a brief explanation. I do all of my Greek typing on the polytonic Greek keyboard that comes built into Windows though other typing programs exist. It matters not to me how you do it. I just need to get Unicode text.

I don’t really care what format you get it to me in, but it must (obviously) be digital. Word is fine. A plain ol’ text file is fine. As long as I can open the file and get to the text so I can put it up on the site, we’re good.

Everything you send will be double-checked. Every mistake costs three words. So if you make a mistake every three words, you won’t make anything. If you make a mistake every six words, you will get paid at half rate. So if you do this it would behoove you to do a quick double-check of your digitization.

All versification markers (books, chapters, and verses) need to be included in the digitization. This includes punctuation, capitalization and accents as well.

Also, don’t be a punk and find a text that has been digitized but has restricted rights and send it to me for payment. That’s completely not cool. And if you find a copy out there that is done that I don’t know about, please let me know so I can pay someone to digitize something that is not available.

What Will I Do with the Output?

At the very least, all of these texts will be released into the public domain, just as I have started to do with some other texts. I may also make readers out of them or...who knows. At the very least, the public gets a digitized copy of an ancient Greek text with no strings attached.

From Where Is This Cash Coming?

It is primarily coming from funds attained through my technical consulting. I do not have endless funds (I am not rich) so the amount of work is limited. If you like the idea of this project and have money to pay people for digitization, let me know.

What About OCR?

I tried a couple of pieces of OCR software a while back but they failed miserably. If you have experience with some OCR software that will do Greek well, please let me know.

What to Digitize?

So, what am I going to watch digitized? Well, it will be primarily Koine material though I have some patristics materials in mind as well. Here’s a short list, though I am open to suggestions:

• Pseudo-Lucian’s "The Ass" (in progress)
• A little more of Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton of Aphrodisias.
• A decent sized chunk of Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Bibliotheka. I have the first few chapters but I want quite a bit more.
• Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History.
• Something from Plutarch
• Or theoretically anything that would be good reading practice for someone wanting to learn Koine Greek.

And, like I said, I am open to suggestions. And do not start on something until you have contacted me just in case someone else wants to do the work and it has already been assigned.

There are so many things that can and should be digitized. What can be done will be limited by my funds (or the funds of anyone else who wants to help). Hopefully I will get a lot of high-paying consulting work :)

Contact me if you are interested. Info to do so is here.