Berlin05 Festival Interview About Erowid
Jul 2005
Televised on Berlin Uniwut
Erowid Note: Below is a transciption of a short interview that was conducted at the BerlinO5 Festival. SSC, the person being interviewed, is a volunteer experience report triager for Erowid. The interview has been translated from its original German by jl.
M: Hi. Here is Martin and we are at the 'Berlin05' Festival at the FEZ in Wuhlheide near Berlin. Here we have a drug information booth. Now we have someone frome Erowid here. [Erowid] is a database on the internet about drugs and experience reports. This is SSC.
SSC: Hi, I am SSC. At erowid.org we have more than 4 gigabytes of textual information, in English. It starts with fly agarics, goes on with LSD, salvia, cannabis, alcohol, caffeine... "you name it you got it". It is all searchable, evaluated. When there has been any critical data like hospitalization or arrests, we verify this. We have a very interesting arts area were people have visualised their experiences with drugs. And we answer questions in our FAQ. There are more than 20 "content reviewers" and more than a thousand incoming experience reports per month. Back to the studio.
M: More than a thousand experience reports, that is quite a lot. Are those shorter or longer?
SSC: Some have 12 pages, some only half a page. The average is about 2 to 3 pages.
M: Is this something longer? Are you answering those people or are you getting into a dialogue?
SSC: Yes, this happens when an experience report looks faked. This means, when it contains information we cannot believe.
M: Really, are there people that fake their experience reports?
SSC: Mmh. Yes, this could even be governmental organisations, that don't like it. Anyway, there are really detailed reports that, in the case of dosage information, cannot be correct.
M: Ok, so there are really experts. That's quite practical.
SSC: Yes, we have an internal system where all incoming experience reports are first verified by 3 to 4 people before they are published online.
M: This is a very good quality feature. This way one can get quite a lot of good information. One is interested, everything can be found. The internet address of the project is:
SSC: www dot erowid dot org, e-r-o-w-i-d.
M: cool
M: Hi. Here is Martin and we are at the 'Berlin05' Festival at the FEZ in Wuhlheide near Berlin. Here we have a drug information booth. Now we have someone frome Erowid here. [Erowid] is a database on the internet about drugs and experience reports. This is SSC.
SSC: Hi, I am SSC. At erowid.org we have more than 4 gigabytes of textual information, in English. It starts with fly agarics, goes on with LSD, salvia, cannabis, alcohol, caffeine... "you name it you got it". It is all searchable, evaluated. When there has been any critical data like hospitalization or arrests, we verify this. We have a very interesting arts area were people have visualised their experiences with drugs. And we answer questions in our FAQ. There are more than 20 "content reviewers" and more than a thousand incoming experience reports per month. Back to the studio.
M: More than a thousand experience reports, that is quite a lot. Are those shorter or longer?
SSC: Some have 12 pages, some only half a page. The average is about 2 to 3 pages.
M: Is this something longer? Are you answering those people or are you getting into a dialogue?
SSC: Yes, this happens when an experience report looks faked. This means, when it contains information we cannot believe.
M: Really, are there people that fake their experience reports?
SSC: Mmh. Yes, this could even be governmental organisations, that don't like it. Anyway, there are really detailed reports that, in the case of dosage information, cannot be correct.
M: Ok, so there are really experts. That's quite practical.
SSC: Yes, we have an internal system where all incoming experience reports are first verified by 3 to 4 people before they are published online.
M: This is a very good quality feature. This way one can get quite a lot of good information. One is interested, everything can be found. The internet address of the project is:
SSC: www dot erowid dot org, e-r-o-w-i-d.
M: cool