SOAR-THE FUTURE
SOAR was demonstrated in the Genealogy workshop, in the Computer workshop, and at several presentations given by CIC during the AHSGR convention in Denver, CO in June, 2001. This provided possible volunteers an overview of what they would be expected to do and interested chapter/district councils an overview af what is available to them for virtually no cost. Several chapter representatives had a little problem understanding what free actually means. AHSGR has purchased an unlimited license for the five year term of the contract with CIC to use the imaging and keyword indexing software package. This means that any chapter can use this approximately $50,000 software package at no cost to them. For optimal usage and to have CIC provide on line support to the chapters, they will have to buy two software packages at a cost of less that $500. This gives them 24 hour per day, seven day per week support from CIC. Training sessions were held at CIC in Greeley, CO on June 11 & 12, following the convention in Denver for volunteers and for interested chapters, who wish to avail themselves of the software purchased by AHSGR.
That software which OCRs the obit images, displays the text for the operator to simply double click on the designated keywords and they are automatically entered into a data base. It is truly that simple! Volunteers were encouraged to sign up during convention and many did, but there is still room for more. The more dedicated people we have doing this the sooner this will be available for use. It will provide links between surnames and even links between villages that we never knew existed. Hopefully this project can be completed in one year but that is up to you. The final phase of the project, that of distribution of the image packets to the volunteers and retrieval of the data base from them is still in the software development and beta testing phase.. It is hoped that in September we will be able to start the distribution process. There will, of course, be problems that will need to be addressed and CIC is there to help us and we will expand the Q&A (Question & Answer) section on this web site so that each volunteer can review any previously asked questions and the answers and hopefully find the answer to his/her question. If not, please ask.
Volunteer computer requirements
PC Pentium 300 MHz or faster, 128 MB Ram 256 preferred, 70 MB hard drive space available, CD-ROM drive, e-mail capability with ISP (Internet Service Provider) capable of receiving large (2MB) attachments. Volunteers using msn as their ISP must upgrade to the 10MB capacity available from msn at a reasonable annual fee.. The free hotmail accounts will not handle these large attachments. Image packets about 1.5MB in size and larger will be e-mailed to you. A plus is a second telephone line which will allow the
technical staff at CIC investigate a problem while on the telephone with you. The software is not currently MAC compatible.
How it works
We will mail you a CD Rom containing the necessary software to do the keyword indexing, the necessary instructions on how to do it and a video clip showing you how to do it. You then request your first 50 image packet via e-mail. A 50 image packet is expected to take the novice user about two hours to complete and by the third one you should be doing them in an hour, depending on how much time you spend reading and enjoying the obits. You will spend some time doing that. We all do. Also on it are the instructions on how resubmit the data base that is created by you back to us. That is basically a two click process. If you wish to receive another packet of 50 images, you simply check a box during that process or if you wish to quit temporarily, due to vacations, etc., you can do that and restart later or if you wish to completely quit, you can and after a brief time period the proprietary software will render itself useless.
After loading the software on your hard drive, the Image Server will bring up the first obit you select, display that actual picture of the obit on the right half of your screen, OCR it and display the actual obit text in a data block in the middle of the left half of your screen. Click here to view an actual screen shot of a computer running the software. You then compare the spelling of the text in that block with actual obit on the right and make corrections. There will be some errors as the OCR process is not 100% accurate. You then double click, or highlight and click on each keyword in the text block and you will see that word appears in the database block directly below it on the left half of your screen. Keyword requirements will be defined for you in the instructions. They will basically be surnames, given names village names certain dates, etc. of all names in the obit. Therefore, if you later do a search on the name of a son/ daughter/ sister/ brother/ aunt/ uncle listed the obit will appear. When you have completed the packet of 50 you simply start the process for sending the database back to us. This part of the software package is still in development so some changes may be made prior to actual startup. We will keep this web site updated if changes do occur.
How do I volunteer?
Send your name, postal address and e-mail address to Marge Benson at rmbmlb@attbi.com and she will see that you get on the list in Lincoln of all the volunteers.
Questions?
Please contact Ken Leffler at klef@sonnet.com or Bob Benson at rmbmlb@attbi.com and we will do our best to answer your questions. If we can't we will find somebody that can.
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Future | Fresno | Lincoln |
Colorado
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California |
| Volunteer Instructions |
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California || Volunteer Instructions |
AHSGR
631 D Street
Lincoln NE 68502-1199
Telephone: (402) 474-3363
Fax: (402) 474-7229
E-Mail: ahsgr@ahsgr.org