designing successful heritage crowdsourcing projects
TRANSCRIPT
Designing Successful Heritage Crowdsourcing Projects
Mia Ridge, @mia_outDigital Curator, British Library
Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, December 2015
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statensarkiver/8975684669
Overview
DefinitionsKey examplesDesigning successful heritage crowdsourcing projects
About me
http://museumgam.es
'Collecting experiences of WWI'
‘Collaborative Collections’
Definitions
What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, Wired, 2006): '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'
What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, Wired, 2006): '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'
Heritage crowdsourcing as volunteering
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/4659373140
Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage
Asking the public to help with tasks that contribute to a shared, significant goal or research interest related to cultural heritage collections or knowledge.
Crowdsourcing in cultural heritage
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.
Basically...
Transforming input content into output content ...via a powerful purpose and / or enjoyable tasks that people want to help you
with
Why crowdsourcing in GLAMs?
Digitisation backlog: collections are big, resources are small
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statensarkiver/8975684427
Fix the 'semantic gap', enhance discoverability
Access external specialist expertise
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/6990188224/
Create meaningful experiences
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmediamuseum/8416664366/
Defining success
Defining success: productivity
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16189299
Defining success: reach
http://community.zooniverse.org/
Defining success: engagement
http://herbariaunited.org/atHome/
Key examples
reCAPTCHA
NLA Trove: OCR correction
http://trove.nla.gov.au/
179 million lines of text corrected
NYPL 'What's on the Menu?'
Transcribe Bentham
Task complexity vs audience size
https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162650585
Old Weather
http://oldweather.org/
Participant discussion
http://oldweather.org/
British Library: Georeferencer
http://www.bl.uk/maps/
Smithsonian 'mini projects'
The power of niche projects
Your Paintings Tagger
PCF Image Recognition
http://freebmd.org.uk/
'Grassroots' projects
Designing successful crowdsourcing projects
Designing successful crowdsourcing projects
• Project design
• User experience (interface, interaction) design– Onboarding, first task– Sustained participation despite changes in
motivation over time
Understanding participants
Who participates in crowdsourcing?
• People who are passionate about your subject / people who like doing the task you're offering
• People who can't volunteer in regular hours or at your venues
• Super-volunteers and passers-by• Amateurs, professionals, 'pro-ams'
Motivations for participation
• Altruistic– helping to provide an accurate record of local
history• Intrinsic– reading 18thC handwriting is an enjoyable puzzle
or they're interested in the subject• Extrinsic– an academic collecting a quote from a primary
source
Intrinsic motivations for participation
• 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, Australiahttps://secure.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/3198305152/
Motivations as design guide
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)
UX design forsuccessful crowdsourcing projects
Basically...
Transforming input content into output content ...via a powerful purpose and / or enjoyable tasks that people want to help you
with
Window shopping
https://www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/6841092248
Link text to motivations
'With a few keystrokes, you could bring a family together'
'We know the names of these children; can you help us tell their stories?'
'Kill Time. Make History.'
'Historians need your help!'
Rewards reinforce motivation
Design for casual and super-contributors
http://blog.oldweather.org
Simple tasks as stepping stones
http://www.fossilfinder.org/
Scaffold tasks, minimise distractions
NYPL 'What's on the Menu?'
Onboarding and casual games
Onboarding and casual games
Tutorials built into the interfaceFeedback on progress towards goalsSkills matched to challengeLow risk of failure
Provide social proof; anticipate anxiety
It’s easy! No registration required!So far: 1,331,935 dishes transcribed from 17,545 menus
Design for on-going participation
Nurture curiosity
'Discuss this personnel record'
http://www.measuringtheanzacs.org
Task ecosystems
http://buildinginspector.nypl.org/
Up the challenge: mobiles and tablets
http://familysearch.org/
Project design
Project design
• Plan to store and process results from crowdsourcing
• Plan to measure success• Plan to contribute to your engagement
strategy and digitisation goals
• Understand the appetite for risk• Reality check your plans
Don't forget to invite people
#party host
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/5786204856
Crowdsourcing as hosting a party
‘no plan survives contact with the crowd’
With apologies to Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
Going off-piste
'...None of the above is ready to send to you as I have more research to do'
https://www.flickr.com/photos/swedish_heritage_board/10207262464
Balancing acts
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/3072281873
Planning a graceful exithttps://www.flickr.com/photos/fylkesarkiv/4545543824
Thank you!Questions?
Mia Ridge @mia_outDigital Curator, British Library
Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, December 2015