I would agree with other posters that OCR will not solve your problem. I would also agree with you that having people sit in front of a computer for long periods is not a good idea.
I have created a system to help in reviewing proposed changes to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES)which sends out a formatted email form to reviewers (many of whom are in developng countries). The reviewers reply with their answers and a simple RegEx sucks the answers into a database.
Benefits of this approach:
Iterative- users can return to their email program several times before completing and sending the form. You don't have to complete in one sitting (our questionnaire is about 150 detailed questions long)
Offline- for users that don't have a dedicated net connection (yes they exist)
Transaction based- you know that an email has been successfully sent
Lowtech- a text based email is a kind of lowest common denominator. You don't have problems with plug-ins or JRE versions with this solution
This kind of thing is easy to build. The tricky part is predicting what users will do with it. In our forms the questions look like- ||Please tell us your shoe size:: ||What color are your shoes?::
The directions originally told users to enter data between the:: after a question and the || before the next question. Result: many of them answered like ||Please tell us your show size:My size is twelve:
and caused the RegEx to miss the answer.
Best of luck
Pragmattic Programmer and Object Oriented Methods
on
General IT Books?
·
· Score: 1
An amazing book (and an easy read) on the art of getting programming done, done well and hopefully not losing too much money at it is
The Pragmatic Programmer
by Hunt and Thomas. Covers many common pitfalls and comes recommended by, among others, Ward Cunningham. This book is not tied to any language, but leans toward object oriented programming and uses some examples (with explaination) in Java, C and Smalltalk.
A truly excellent book although much more technical is
Object Oriented Methods
Principles and Practice by Ian Graham. Graham has been around the block and it it shows. This is really the A-Z of OO. From the basics through artificial intelligence and fuzzy set theory, this is a book that you can grow into over time as you develop skills and understanding. When the math gets deep, he gives signposts warning "If you are not interested in the math behind how this database stuff works, skip over this section". 800 pages of gold.
I have been using this service in my travels around the world and in particular in developing countries. Want a dial-up in Lusaka, Zambia? They have it. An addressbook updates itself on connect.
This raises a good point. Living here in Zambia I see corruption everyday in many forms. Open access to information is a Good Thing and might help combat this.
However, I would say that most people here are raising the importance of the technology over that of the info is is supposed to convey. Who gives a shit whether info flows through Xboxes, PSs or Dreamcast... or radio?
In this country (and many other 'highly indebted nations') personal, private access to information technology is not feasible- but personal, private access to information is. If we had a system of information centres staffed with knowledgeable helpful folks, the poor could travel a couple of hours to get access to important info and carry it home on the most revolutionary technology ever introduced: paper. In many cases, even this wouldn't work as many people can't read or write- but the staff could help search for the requested info and read it to the user, even translating into a local language.
Info tech is important but we need to be creative and realistic in its application. I've lived in areas where people steal handmade stools from each other- there is often little or no personal security. How can someone hold onto their nifty Dreamcast? Furthermore many posters underestimate the quality of their education. Most people in rural areas have little in the way of analytical skills. This is not a chauvanism- they are not stupid people, but they have not been trained to deconstruct ideas or apply logical processes. There are many tools which you need before you can shape the clay of raw information into a knowledge sculpture. Many of these tools are not yet in the hands of John Gage and the WEF's target audience.
One more thing, there are a lot of "we"s and "us"es peppered though the posts in this thread which I take to mean "we Americans" or "us Westerners" as opposed to "us geeks". There are many people that don't fall into the former categories reading these posts! "We" are a global community and should act like it. Switch from talk about what the West (or North) can do for the 3rd world (or South) - that doesn't work. It's been a losing battle for 50 years. Let's talk more about what we as a group of tech savvy people can do for disadvanteged people everywhere.
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I have created a system to help in reviewing proposed changes to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES)which sends out a formatted email form to reviewers (many of whom are in developng countries). The reviewers reply with their answers and a simple RegEx sucks the answers into a database.
Benefits of this approach:
- Iterative- users can return to their email program several times before completing and sending the form. You don't have to complete in one sitting (our questionnaire is about 150 detailed questions long)
- Offline- for users that don't have a dedicated net connection (yes they exist)
- Transaction based- you know that an email has been successfully sent
- Lowtech- a text based email is a kind of lowest common denominator. You don't have problems with plug-ins or JRE versions with this solution
This kind of thing is easy to build. The tricky part is predicting what users will do with it. In our forms the questions look like-||Please tell us your shoe size::
||What color are your shoes?::
The directions originally told users to enter data between the
||Please tell us your show size:My size is twelve:
and caused the RegEx to miss the answer.
Best of luck
- The Pragmatic Programmer
by Hunt and Thomas. Covers many common pitfalls and comes recommended by, among others, Ward Cunningham. This book is not tied to any language, but leans toward object oriented programming and uses some examples (with explaination) in Java, C and Smalltalk. A truly excellent book although much more technical is- Object Oriented Methods
Principles and Practice by Ian Graham. Graham has been around the block and it it shows. This is really the A-Z of OO. From the basics through artificial intelligence and fuzzy set theory, this is a book that you can grow into over time as you develop skills and understanding. When the math gets deep, he gives signposts warning "If you are not interested in the math behind how this database stuff works, skip over this section". 800 pages of gold.I have been using this service in my travels around the world and in particular in developing countries. Want a dial-up in Lusaka, Zambia? They have it. An addressbook updates itself on connect.
http://www.cgnet.com/
However, I would say that most people here are raising the importance of the technology over that of the info is is supposed to convey. Who gives a shit whether info flows through Xboxes, PSs or Dreamcast... or radio?
In this country (and many other 'highly indebted nations') personal, private access to information technology is not feasible- but personal, private access to information is. If we had a system of information centres staffed with knowledgeable helpful folks, the poor could travel a couple of hours to get access to important info and carry it home on the most revolutionary technology ever introduced: paper. In many cases, even this wouldn't work as many people can't read or write- but the staff could help search for the requested info and read it to the user, even translating into a local language. Info tech is important but we need to be creative and realistic in its application. I've lived in areas where people steal handmade stools from each other- there is often little or no personal security. How can someone hold onto their nifty Dreamcast? Furthermore many posters underestimate the quality of their education. Most people in rural areas have little in the way of analytical skills. This is not a chauvanism- they are not stupid people, but they have not been trained to deconstruct ideas or apply logical processes. There are many tools which you need before you can shape the clay of raw information into a knowledge sculpture. Many of these tools are not yet in the hands of John Gage and the WEF's target audience. One more thing, there are a lot of "we"s and "us"es peppered though the posts in this thread which I take to mean "we Americans" or "us Westerners" as opposed to "us geeks". There are many people that don't fall into the former categories reading these posts! "We" are a global community and should act like it. Switch from talk about what the West (or North) can do for the 3rd world (or South) - that doesn't work. It's been a losing battle for 50 years. Let's talk more about what we as a group of tech savvy people can do for disadvanteged people everywhere.