Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay: Take Down the Fences … Here Comes the Crowd. Martin R. Kalfatovic. IMLS Focus: Inspiration and Innovation in Libraries and museums 2015. New Orleans. 16 November 2015

1. Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of
shore to bend of bay
Take Down the Fences … Here Comes the Crowd
IMLS Focus 2015 | New Orleans | 16 November 2015 | Martin R. Kalfatovic | @UDCMRK
Harnessing the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Generate Content

2. library.si.edu
HERE COMES EVERYBODY (HCE)
“[B]ecause the minimum costs of being
an organization in the first place are
relatively high, certain activities may
have some value but not enough to
make them worth pursuing in any
organized way. New social tools are
altering this equation by lowering the
costs of coordinating group action.”
Clay Shirky
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing
Without Organizations (2008)
The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the

3. library.si.edu
THE GLOBAL BHL

4. library.si.edu
Art to …
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
“… for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge…”
A microcosm of the GLAM
community
… Zoo (& all in between)
Art to Zoology … and all
between

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US … US … US ...

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AND THEM … THEM … THEM ...

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US AND THEM ...
6,373
7,379,304,539

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CONNECTING ...
@TranscribeSI
@SILibraries
@BioDivLibrary
@MeghaninMotion
Dr Meghan Ferriter
@FieldBookProj

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Citizen science
Collaborative innovation network
Collective consciousness
Collective intelligence
Commons-based peer production
Crowd computing
Crowdcasting
Crowdfixing
Distributed thinking
Flash mob
Gamification
Government crowdsourcing
Participatory monitoring
Smart mob
Social collaboration
Virtual Collective Consciousness
Virtual volunteering
Wisdom of the crowd
CITIZEN SCIENCE ...

10. library.si.edu
CITIZEN SCIENCE … CIRCA 1856
The Smithsonian's
Secretary, Joseph
Henry, establishes a
network of over 600
meteorological
observers around the
world and the send
back weather reports
that are then
compiled and
published by the
Smithsonian.

11. library.si.edu
CITIZEN SCIENCE … CIRCA 1856

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CITIZEN SCIENCE … #VOLUNPEERS 2015

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FIRST THERE IS A PLATFORM …
Today we use more
sophisticated tools
across various
platforms.
l
> Flickr (for BHL images)
l
> Gamification (for OCR correction)
l
> Science Gossip (for BHL images)
l
> Transcription (for manuscript
material)

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CROWDSOURCING FLICKR IMAGE TAGGING

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Having our images in Flickr made it possible to reach
new audiences! The crowd helped to make our
images discoverable using tags.
DISCOVERABILITY AND REUSE

16. library.si.edu
SPECIALIST METADATA FROM THE CROWD
Machine Tags
namespace:predicate=“value”
namespace = taxonomy
predicate = binomial
(or trinomial…)
“value” = Name
taxonomy:binomial=“Zea mays”

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SPECIALIST METADATA FROM THE CROWD
taxonomy:binomial=“Magnolia hodgsonii”

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GAMIFICATION: THE PLAYFUL CROWD
Our point of departure must be the
conception of an almost childlike
play-sense expressing itself in
various play-forms, some serious,
some playful, but all rooted in ritual
and productive of culture by
allowing the innate human need of
rhythm, harmony, change,
alternation, contrast and climax,
etc., to unfold in full richness.
Johan Huizinga
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element
in Culture

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PURPOSEFUL GAMING PROJECT
@Wulate
William Ulate
@trosesandler
Trish Rose-Sandler

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GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION
Smorball is a challenging
browser game that asks players to
correctly type the words they see on
the screen–punctuation and all. The
more words they type correctly, the
quicker opposing teams are
defeated, and the closer the Eugene
Melonballers get to the Dalahäst
Trophy

21. library.si.edu
GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION
Beanstalk. Do you have
a green thumb? Test your
skills as the victor of vines by
typing the words shown on
the screen, and grow your
beanstalk from a tiny tendril to
massive cloudscraper in this
calming, zen-like typing
game.

22. library.si.edu
GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION
Beanstalk. Do you have
a green thumb? Test your
skills as the victor of vines by
typing the words shown on
the screen, and grow your
beanstalk from a tiny tendril to
massive cloudscraper in this
calming, zen-like typing
game.

23. library.si.edu
GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION
Beanstalk. Do you have
a green thumb? Test your
skills as the victor of vines by
typing the words shown on
the screen, and grow your
beanstalk from a tiny tendril to
massive cloudscraper in this
calming, zen-like typing
game.

24. library.si.edu
SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE
The publication of books and periodicals are key locations
for visualizing knowledge about the natural world. These
will have a direct impact on the research of historians who
are trying to figure out why, how often, and who made
images depicting a whole range of natural sciences in the
Victorian period.

25. library.si.edu
SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE
We are trying to gather 3
types of information via
image crowdsourcing:
o Where are the images located
within BHL books?
o What type of image are we
dealing with?
o What is the content of the
image?
Jordan, David Starr. The Fishes of Samoa.
1906.

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SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE
As a user, you would answer “Yes” or “No” to indicate
if there was an image on the page.
http://sciencegossip.org

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SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE
You would then indicate the type of image: drawing,
chart, photograph, or map.
http://sciencegossip.org

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SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE
You can then enter content information, like common
and species names. This, for instance, in the Java Finch.
http://sciencegossip.org

29. library.si.edu
SMITHSONIAN TRANSCRIPTION CENTER

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SMITHSONIAN TRANSCRIPTION CENTER

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SMITHSONIAN FIELD BOOKS

32. library.si.edu
“There we had the first definitive news that Austria had
declared war against Serbia (on the 28th
), but still
everywhere hope was expressed the peace would come, and
it was reported that the King of England would arbitrate the
dispute.” – Bohumil Shimek
SMITHSONIAN FIELD BOOKS: HIDDEN GEMS
Shimek, Bohumil. Diary, European trip 1914.
Bohumil Shimek Papers, 1878-1936.

33. library.si.edu
LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS
Libraries, archives
and museums (LAMs
or + galleries,
GLAMS) have been
actively participating
in harnessing the
“wisdom of the
crowds” for many
years now …
Denver Public Library > < Denver Art Museum
Flickr | Traveling Librarian

34. library.si.edu
LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS
But too often, this
has resulted in
new silos of
information …
innovative as that
silo might be!
Corn Silo, Rochester, MN
Flickr | Traveling Librarian

35. library.si.edu
LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS
… it’s time to start
not just using the
crowd, but use what
the crowd has
created to deepen
our knowledge of
library, archives, and
museum collections! Changed Priorities Ahead, London
Flickr | Traveling Librarian

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USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

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USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

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USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

39. library.si.edu
USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

40. library.si.edu
USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

41. library.si.edu
USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

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USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

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MAKING TRANSCRIPTIONS DISCOVERABLE

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BHL AND FIELD BOOKS

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BHL AND FIELD BOOKS

46. library.si.edu
VOLUNPEER
I want to be entertained, interested
and learn something new. I also want
to feel like I’m contributing to the
greater good and, in my small way, to
the progression of science in general.
I’ll keep working on a project if I believe
it is worthwhile and interesting. I tend
to be one of those people who finish
what they start, so task completion is a
motivation in itself.
Siobhan Leachman
What Makes a Citizen Science Project Successful?

47. library.si.edu
HUMPHREY CHIMPDEN EARWICKER (HCE)
… riverrun, past Eve and Adam's,
from swerve of shore to bend of
bay, brings us by a commodius
vicus of recirculation back to Howth
Castle and Environs. The keys to.
Given! A way a lone a last a loved a
long the ...
James Joyce
Finnegan's Wake (1939)
Give the keys away … here they come … to help us / them!

48. library.si.edu
Thanks to...
Smithsonian Staf
l Suzanne Pilsk
l Grace Costantino
l Meghan Ferriter
l Lesley Parilla
l Ricc Ferrante
l Ching-Hsien Wang
Missouri Botanical Garden
l William Ulate
l Trish Rose-Sandler
l Mike Lichtenberg
… and most of all to our crowds
of Volunpeers!

49. library.si.edu
Beanstalk Game
l http://beanstalkgame.org/
l BHL Flickr Sets
l http://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/s
ets
l "Meterorology at the Smithsonian"
l http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/henr
y/meteorology
l Science Gossip
l http://www.sciencegossip.org/
l Smithsonian Dashboard
l http://dashboard.si.edu/
l Smithsonian Transcription Center
l https://transcription.si.edu/
l Smorball Game
l http://smorballgame.org/
l What Makes a Citizen Science Project
Successful?
l http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/w
hat-makes-citizen-science-project.html
l Worldodometers
l http://www.worldometers.info/world-
population/
Sources and Notes