Crowdsourcing as productive engagement with cultural heritage

1. The gift that gives twice: crowdsourcing as productiveengagement with cultural heritage Mia Ridge, Open University http://openobjects.org.uk @mia_outThe Shape of Things: New and emerging technology-enabled models of participation through VGC

2. About mehttp://bit.ly/13JqWpr Tool from http://neatline.org/

3. What is crowdsourcing? the spare processing power of millions of human brainsNational Library NZ on The Commonshttps://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/3326203787/

4. Crowdsourcing and related terms The Library of Congress https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2163131283/

5. What’s VGC, what’s crowdsourcing? When there’s no clearly defined direction, shared goal or research question?Smithsonian Institution Archives, http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?id=279

6. Participatory project modelsContributory  the public contributes data to a project designed by the organisationCollaborative  both active partners, but lead by organisationCo-creative  all partners define goals togetherCenter for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)

7. But who really has agency?"I participate, you participate, he participates, we participate, you participate...theyprofit.“ (1968) Via A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R Arnstein

8. The ethics of crowdsourcing http://xkcd.com/1060

9. Crowdsourcing in GLAMs (GLAMs: galleries, libraries, museums, archives)Cornell University Library https://www.flickr.com/photos/cornelluniversitylibrary/3611951684/

10. Why crowdsourcing in GLAMs? Cornell University Library https://www.flickr.com/photos/cornelluniversitylibrary/4558314825/

11. Who participates in crowdsourcing? UW Digital Collections http://www.flickr.com/photos/uw_digital_images/4476958262/

12. Super-contributors and drive-bys‘16,400 little boxes – one for each person who’s contributed to oldWeather. The area of each box isproportional to the number of pages transcribed, between us all we’ve done 1,090,745 pages.’http://blog.oldweather.org/2012/09/05/theres-a-green-one-and-a-pink-one-and-a-blue-one-and-a-yellow-one/

13. Crowdsourcing before the web• 19th Century natural history collecting• 1849 Smithsonian meteorological observation project• 1857, 1879 Oxford English Dictionary• WWII Soldiers given a Field Collector’s Manual in Natural History by the US Museum of Natural History James Murray, editor, OED, with contributor slips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James-Murray.jpg

14. Productive process and outcomes The Library of Congress https://secure.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2178435033/

15. ReCAPTCHA

16. National Library of Australia: Trovehttp://trove.nla.gov.au/

17. Trove Over 85 million lines of text corrected, 1.9 million tags; 50k comments, 82k registered users

18. FamilySearch 2012 Statistics Total records indexed: 534,108,416 Total records arbitrated: 263,254,447 Total volunteers contributing: 348,796 Total estimated hours contributed: 12,764,859 On “5 Million Name Fame” event day, July 2012: Indexed Records: 7,258,151 Arbitrated Records: 3,082,728 Total Records Worked: 10,340,879https://familysearch.org Volunteers participating: 46,091.

19. …indexing goes mobilehttps://tech.lds.org/blog/455-new-familysearch-indexing-app-now-available

20. DigitalkootLess than two years,almost 110,000participantscompleted over 8million word fixingtaskshttp://www.digitalkoot.fi/

21. Transcribe Benthamhttp://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc.ac.uk/

22. Old Weatherhttp://oldweather.org/

23. NYPL Whats on the Menu?http://menus.nypl.org/

24. NYPL Whats on the Menu? 1,156,841 dishes transcribed from 16,243 menus

25. NYPL Whats on the Menu?

26. Reading Experience Database http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/

27. British Library Georeferencer http://www.bl.uk/maps/ Georeferencer: Crowdsourced Georeferencing for Map Library Collections

28. Types of content • Links between content (relationships) • Ratings/Votes • Tags • Corrections • Transcriptions • Descriptions • Spatial coordinatesTyne & Wear Archives & Museums https://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/5715279337/

29. Types of content • Images, multimedia • Game levels • Research • Object identification • Family records • Objects, documents • Personal experiences, memoriesTyne & Wear Archives & Museums https://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/5715279337/

30. Tasks in crowdsourcing• Tagging (subjective, personal, factua l)• Transcription (including OCR correction)• Moderating (debunking, flagging for review)• Writing personal stories or memories• Linking, relationships• Stating preferences• Categorising• Geo-locating UW Digital Collections• Creative responses https://www.flickr.com/photos/uw_digital_images/4498023042/

31. Productive engagementState Archives of North Carolinahttps://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/6950674990/

32. Engagement1. attending2. participating3. deciding4. producing‘Department for Culture Media and Sport The U.S. National Archives Culture and Sport Evidence, 2011 http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/3678706327/

33. Levels of Engagement in citizen science• Level 1: participating in simple classification tasks• Level 2: participating in community discussion• Level 3: working independently on self- identified research projects’(Raddick et al, 2009) State Library of Queensland, Australia https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/4603281578/

34. Crowdsourcing as gateway to further activity http://herbariaunited.org/atHome/

35. FamilySearch ‘stepping stones’• Indexing as ‘introductory, family history education’ including: – Knowledge about Record Types – Genealogical Information – Handwriting Practice• From indexing, can move to arbitration – Invited after transcribing 2,000 records if 94% accuracy or higher

36. Crowdsourcing and motivations for participation Powerhouse Museum Collection https://secure.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2633069104/

37. Motivations for participation• Altruistic – helping to provide an accurate record of local history• Intrinsic – reading 18thC handwriting is an enjoyable puzzle• Extrinsic – an academic collecting a quote from a primary source

38. Extrinsic motivationshttp://gwap.com

39. Altruismhttp://helpfromhome.org/

40. Intrinsic motivations• fun• the pleasure in doing hobbies• the enjoyment in learning• mastering new skills, practicing existing skills• recognition• community• passion for the subject State Library of Queensland, Australia https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/3198305152/

41. Intrinsic motivationsPeople crave:• satisfying work to do• the experience of being good at something• time spent with people we like• the chance to be a part of something bigger(Jane McGonigal, 2009) State Library of New South Wales collection https://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/2880982738/

42. Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage• Fun, challenging tasks• Interesting subjects• Interfaces and community provide scaffolding• Lots of content for museums The U.S. National Archives http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/4266498500/

43. Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage: doubly productive

44. Conclusion: everybody winsNational Library of Ireland on The Commons https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6465119121/

45. Thank you!Questions?Mia RidgeOpen Universityhttp://openobjects.org.uk@mia_out The Library of Congress https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179923364/