Transcription Update

Here is an update! On the ongoing process to transcribe the Wendy Davis filibuster, the associated citizen testimony, and the associated amendment debates! It is going to have lots of exclamation points! For science!

A) That Non-Profit Company Book Link Thing You May Have Seen On Twitter! A couple of you have written me about a non-profit company that has recently published their own Wendy Davis filibuster transcript. I was actually contacted earlier in our transcription process by that company; they asked to use our online transcript in their book, and I declined because I was concerned about retaining the right to set an affordable price point. I mention this only because a few people have worried how this might affect our transcript (it doesn't; I hold a copyright on our material) and whether they might have plagiarized us (I genuinely do not believe they have). So no worries!

(But I would strongly encourage people not to link to the book in this thread, as I am concerned that the ensuing inevitable conversation over their chosen price point may be distracting and potentially contentious and difficult to moderate. It's easy to find on Google.)

B) Emails! If you have sent me an email in the last two weeks and I haven't written you back, I totally will I promise. I have had all kinds of family drama and work drama and illness drama and SO MUCH DRAMA and there's kind of this Tragedy Of The Inbox situation now where the longer your email sits in my inbox the longer I take to answer it and arrrrgh. I'm sorry about that. I swear I will totally get back to everyone soon -- ideally this weekend, but that may be optimistic.

C) Progress! We are doing really, really well. You may recall we have 5 sessions slated for transcription. The Wendy Davis filibuster (1) has been basically done (i.e., either up or in proofing) for awhile now. The House Amendments (2) have all been spliced and sent out, way back when. Most of those are in proofing stages. The Senate Amendments (3) are 80% sent out; I've stalled on the last 20% and hope to finish that soon. Most of those are being transcribed as I type this.

The remaining two sessions -- the citizen testimony sessions that I couldn't map out myself because triggers -- have been sent out to their brave volunteers. (OMG THANK YOU, YOU TWO.) One of them is halfway finished and I have the capability to splice-and-send just as soon as I find the time. The other one got hir video last night, and has plenty of time because I still have the first one to splice out which is no small task. And while that may not seem like we're doing really, really well, for context's sake, I expected that by September we'd still be on the filibuster. Seriously, you guys, we are magic.

D) Volunteers! Having said that, if you have the time and spoons, please stay with us for the final stretch. We've lost roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of our volunteers to Other Life Priorities, all of whom we wish well and thank with deep gratitude, so that means all the remaining volunteers are that much more essential to the process. Which is totally not meant to be pressury and if you need to pull out, that's fine and I totally understand. But if you have the spoons to give, boy howdy we need them.

I think that's pretty much it! Once again, thank you all so, so much for all the support you're giving in so many supporty ways! And thank you all so, so much for being both generally and specifically awesome!