Virtual participation

Registering for a MyHouseMyStreet user account provides several online participation options:

1) Play Tag

Copies of original historic documents constitute some of the main content on the MyHouseMyStreet  website. These are used to provide information about such matters as a property's past occupants, their places of birth, work, etc. For each individual historical document we put on the website we provide the document name and the year of publication. However, we ideally need to add additional metadata about each document to our database.

We have built the Play Tag system to make the graphical content of the MyHouseMyStreet website (currently street and trade directories but, soon, also census documents, deeds, etc.) more useful to all users. When you Play Tag you are actually using a software tool that easily and quickly allows you to record data about the graphic being viewed such as its page number and any sub-sections into which it is divided.

Tagging (or cataloguing) the graphics in this way will, eventually, significantly enhance user interaction with the data; aiding people to quickly find specific information, rather than viewing lots of unnecessary material as they search through the records we store.

Playing Tag is fun, it can be done almost anywhere, and is available 24/7!

For more information about this part of the project, visit our learning to Play Tag page.

2) Transcribe

Once the documents have been fully tagged, the next step will be to transcribe them, word for word, directly into the system. The process for transcribing documents will become available when the Play Tag activity has been completed and further information about transcribing will be made available here in due course.

3) Additional activities

In time, registered users who Play Tag and Transcribe will be offered additional ways to participate with the project, such as contributing to the development of street histories, blogging and uploading new graphic material (planning records, family letters, old postcards and photos, etc.).

These activities will be achieved using tools similar to those developed for the processing of census and directory recourses.