This document discusses crowdsourcing in cultural heritage institutions like libraries, archives, and museums. It defines crowdsourcing as outsourcing tasks traditionally done by employees to a large, undefined network of people through an open call. Crowdsourcing activities in these fields include tasks like digitization, transcription, and description undertaken by volunteers or participants in games. People are motivated by interests in subjects, altruism, and developing new skills. Examples provided include transcription projects, weather data collection, and transcribing historical recipes. Crowdsourcing can build communities of practice and stepping stones for skills like observation, sourcing evidence, and posing questions.

1. Crowdsourcing,
scholarship and
the academy
Mia Ridge
Digital Curator, British Library
@mia_out
Social Scholar lunchtime seminar
School of Advanced Study, University of London

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http://museumgam.es

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What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, Wired,
2006): 'the act of as company or institution taking a
function once performed by employees and outsourcing it
to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in
the form of an open call'
Or, as Clay Shirky's cognitive surplus, 'the spare
processing power of millions of human brains‘
Or, as volunteering online

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Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage is...
...asking the public to help with tasks that contribute to a
shared, significant goal or research interest related to cultural
heritage collections or knowledge.
The activities and/or goals should be inherently rewarding.

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Crowdsourcing in GLAMs
• Tasks like collecting, digitisation, description, transcription
undertaken by distributed, possibly anonymous
participants
• Participation possibly as 'volunteers', or as side-effect of
playing games or own work on historical materials
• Appeals to intrinsic motivations; interest in subject;
altruism; mastering new skills
* GLAMs are galleries, libraries, museums, archives

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Motivations as guidance
People 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
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29454428@N08/2880982738

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Crowdsourcing before the web
• 19th Century natural history
collecting
• 1849 Smithsonian weather
observation project
• 1857, 1879 Oxford English
Dictionary appeals
• 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

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ReCAPTCHA

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National Library of Australia: Trove

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Transcribe Bentham

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Reading Experience Database

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FreeBMD

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Old Weather

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Old Weather forum

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Old Weather

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Communities of practice as ‘social
learning systems’

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Crowdsourcing as 'stepping stones'

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Operation War Diary

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Operation War Diary

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Operation War Diary

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Operation War Diary

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#party host
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/5786204856
Crowdsourcing as hosting a party

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Jonathan Kriz https://www.flickr.com/photos/27587002@N07/5170590074

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Early Modern Recipes Online Collective
(EMROC)
‘For the building-block assignment over the course of the
term, we will be undertaking an exciting hands-on
collaborative project: an online transcription and online
analysis of Johanna St. John’s seventeenth-century
household book. … We will spend time learning technical
skills, as well as talking about history. The course will develop
your oral, writing, analytical, collaborative and technology
skills. As such, the final grade of the course is based on your
seminar participation, transcription, and research essay.#

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Skills gained?
American Historical Association (AHA)
'core competencies’
• the ability to engage in historical inquiry,
research, and analysis;
• to practice historical empathy;
• to understand the complex nature of the
historical record;
• generate significant, open-ended
questions about the past and devise
research strategies to answer them;
• to craft historical narrative and
argument;
• to practice historical thinking
Historical thinking
• Observation
• Sourcing
• Inferencing
• Evidence
• Question posing
• Corroboration
Bill Tally and Lauren B. Goldenberg,
“Fostering Historical Thinking With
Digitized Primary Sources,” Journal of
Research on Technology in Education

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Thank you!

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What do you think?
•Can academics (realistically) find the time for
good community engagement?
•Can academics share credit, authorship,
authority?
•Impact and the REF?
•Crowdsourcing vs traditional education
– Ethics, extrinsic motivation
– Practical skills for students