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Citizen History and its Discontents

This document discusses crowdsourcing and citizen history projects in cultural heritage. It defines crowdsourcing as outsourcing functions to a large network of people through an open call. Cultural heritage crowdsourcing involves meaningful public tasks related to collections that provide inherent rewards. Citizen science involves public participation in data processing, analysis, and research design. Participatory project models range from contributory to collaborative to co-creative. Examples of citizen history projects discussed include FreeBMD, Old Weather, Operation War Diary, and Children of the Lodz Ghetto. The document examines competing models of citizen history and structural issues that can undermine such projects.

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Citizen history and its discontents Mia Ridge, Open University / Trinity College Dublin @mia_out www.miaridge.com 18 November 2014 Senate House, London IHR Seminar in Digital History
What is crowdsourcing? 'the act of a 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’ (Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson for Wired, 2006)
Cultural heritage crowdsourcing is... ...asking the public to undertake meaningful tasks related to cultural heritage collections in an environment where the activities and/or goals provide inherent rewards for participation. The project should contribute to a shared, significant goal or research interest.
Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage Transforming input content into output content... ...via a powerful purpose and / or enjoyable tasks that people want to help you with
Citizen science Version I: assisting scientists through participation in data processing tasks Version II: Some definitions additionally include participation in data analysis and research design
Participatory project models Contributory  the public contributes data to a project designed by the organisation Collaborative  both active partners, but lead by organisation Co-creative  all partners define goals together (Bonney et al, 2009,Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)
Avocational history • ‘amateur’ historians, sometimes with formal training or decades of experience
Communities of practice • ‘Social learning systems’, knowledge acquired through participation
What is ‘a historian’?
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
Examples
FreeBMD
Forums as communities of practice
Old Weather
Old Weather
Operation War Diary
Operation War Diary
Operation War Diary
Operation War Diary
Operation War Diary
Children of the Lodz Ghetto
Children of the Lodz Ghetto
Conclusions from case studies • Exposure to historical material is powerful • A critical mass of discussion is important • Expert input in discussion is transformational • The effect of the ‘absent expert’?
Competing models of ‘citizen history’ • Grassroots, self-organised projects • ‘Accidentally’ citizen history projects • Intentional citizen history projects • Citizen history is the new crowdsourcing • ‘Accidentally not quite citizen history projects’
Structural issues that undermine ‘citizen history’ projects
Thank you! Mia Ridge, Open University/Trinity College Dublin @mia_out The Library of Congress https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179923 364/