"The Svoboda Diaries Project began in 2006 as a project under the umbrella of the Ottoman Texts Archive Project (OTAP), started in 1993 at the University of Washington. In 2013, SDP became one of the founding partners in the Newbook Digital Texts (NDT) collaborative digital publications initiative founded by Professors Walter Andrews, Mary Childs, and Sarah Ketchley....The Joseph Mathia Svoboda diaries capture over 40 years of trade on the Tigris, life, politics, and the landscape of Ottoman Iraq through the perspective of a British steamship purser with a rich family history and local connections." -About the Diaries from https://www.svobodadiariesproject.org/about-2/
My first project on Svoboda Diaries was Transcribing
Taking pictures of diaries to become digital information. This way other teams like UX/UI or Content can take the information and make maps, search engines, timelines, etc etc.
I found this as a sort of "hazing" period because all newbies spend at least a quarter or a year given the transcribing assignment. It's not desirable because it's quite boring and repetitive. However, it's a critical component of the project because it provides information for all the other teams to work with. Once you have a solid understanding of the technology and software working with, you can then move onto other projects.
My second project was to help create a timeline of events, I worked on documenting political and economic events that occurred during Joseph's life
Similar to the becoming an editor for the UW microbiology journal, I had to work on different teams and we had to make deadlines with each other.
Documenting events was also incredibly insightful in bridging me to the field of historical research. Sometimes you have to wade through dozens or even hundreds of pages of uneventful information before finding something interesting. When looking into a new field or trying to make your mark in historical research, you have to read/explore the unread and undiscussed. Then you have to stop and ask yourself whether this is fact is actually interesting or you are just making it interesting because you've been reading about shipping containers the entire time...
But most importantly, his diaries emphasizes people just trying to live their lives during upheaval.
And Joseph's life goes on after cholera outbreaks, epidemics, political upheaval, and economic crashes. He also didn't have the modern convinces of our time, so surely we can make it as well in the 21st century?