Transcript
WHAT IS CROWDSOURCING?
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
Volunteers can help achieve amazing things – work that couldn’t otherwise be done.
Crowdsourcing 1.0
The Oxford English Dictionary was crowd-sourced. A plea by the Philological Society in 1879 read: ‘A thousand readers are wanted, and confidently asked for, to complete the work… Any one can help.’
Image credit: Photo by Emdot via Flickr.com under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/3959959225
Crowdsourcing 2.0What’s different in the Internet age?
Crowdsourcing 2.0: Wikipedia
Launched in 2001
470 million unique visitors monthly
4,460,985 articles in English
Currently more than 76,000 active contributors working on more than 31,000,000 articles in 285 languages
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Crowdsourcing asks people to complete tasks that cannot be done automatically…
The Newlyn Exhibition, by Joan GillchrestOil on Board, 1979
What can be done?
• Transcribing hand-written text into digital form• Tagging images to aid discovery and preservation• Tagging audio files to aid discovery and re-use• Commenting on content or participating in
discussions in online communities• Recording experiences or memories as oral history• Scanning or photographing important historical
objects from a personal or family collection
Why crowdsource?
• Add content• Add value• Analyse large data sets• Open up discussion• Educate• Create or widen networks• Encourage participation• Transform access to resources• Enable new research questions
Beyond cataloguing…
Student projects
WHAT CAN CROWDSOURCING DO FOR YOU?
What can we learn from crowdsourcing?
Image credit: ‘Listen, Understand, Act’ by Steven Shorrock via Flickr.com under a CC BY-NA-SA 2.0 licensehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/highersights/6231641551
Cultural heritage and wellbeing
Image credit: Happiness by Caleb Roenigk via Flickr.com under a CC BY 2.0 licensehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/5510507276
Contact me:
Dr Kathryn EcclesDigital Humanities Champion, University of Oxfordhttp://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institutehttp://www.oii.ox.ac.uk
Email me: kathryn.eccles@oii.ox.ac.ukFollow me on Twitter: @KathrynEccles
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