Crowdsourcing
What?
Crowdsourcing is a term coined by Jeff Howe in 2006 to describe a three-step process: (1) A company posts a problem; (2) the public responds with solutions; (3) the best solution is rewarded and the company mass produces the solution for its own benefit.[1] In other words, it is a neologism for the business practice of outsourcing work via the internet. However, over the last 14 years crowdsourcing has evolved to also describe the creation of a body of work by disconnected people with varying experiences and knowledge utilizing the Internet.[2]
Why?
Cultural heritage conservation crowdsourcing is typically used as an information gathering mechanism. The prevailing assumption is that “a wealth of disorganized knowledge exists ‘out there’ and that a top-down, managed process can efficiently disperse a large online community of individuals to find specific knowledge and collect it in specific ways in a common repository.”[3] This form of crowdsourcing is not capitalistic in nature, but is reliant upon collaboration and cooperation. Furthermore, the motives to participate are intrinsic rather than monetary.
How?
Issues?
Crowdsourcing is a term coined by Jeff Howe in 2006 to describe a three-step process: (1) A company posts a problem; (2) the public responds with solutions; (3) the best solution is rewarded and the company mass produces the solution for its own benefit.[1] In other words, it is a neologism for the business practice of outsourcing work via the internet. However, over the last 14 years crowdsourcing has evolved to also describe the creation of a body of work by disconnected people with varying experiences and knowledge utilizing the Internet.[2]
Why?
Cultural heritage conservation crowdsourcing is typically used as an information gathering mechanism. The prevailing assumption is that “a wealth of disorganized knowledge exists ‘out there’ and that a top-down, managed process can efficiently disperse a large online community of individuals to find specific knowledge and collect it in specific ways in a common repository.”[3] This form of crowdsourcing is not capitalistic in nature, but is reliant upon collaboration and cooperation. Furthermore, the motives to participate are intrinsic rather than monetary.
How?
- Define the task.
- Choose a web platform.
- Write clear instructions for the community to submit data.
- Recruit a crowd to participate.
- Gather the data.
- Make decisions based upon the data.
Issues?
- Crowdsourcing, by its very nature, requires users to have access to an Internet connection and be familiar with computers or smartphones.
- Participation in crowdsourcing is heavily dependent upon motivation.[4]
- Data collection from crowdsourcing can demonstrate wide variation in quality.[5]
Effective Uses
Dr. Andrea Roberts’ Texas Freedom Colonies Project began with a vision Roberts had about mapping Texas’ unmapped Black settlements.[6] Over the course of a few years of research, Roberts documented 35 colonies in two Texas counties. She and her team decided to expand the research by creating a crowdsourcing mapping tool that gives contributors an opportunity to literally put historic settlements on the map. The tool encourages contributors to “share the story of your settlement (origin story, history, population, family names, traditions, events, church, cemetery, and school name, etc.)” and to provide supporting resources like books, articles, maps, and brochures.[7] The atlas then serves as a repository of information about the historic settlements that can support the efforts of preservationists, planners, and cultural resource managers to protect these sites. Now, more than 550 settlements have been identified, 357 have been mapped, and the stories of many of those settlements have been brought to light. |
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In January 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) unveiled a Where Women Made History campaign in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.[8] One leg of the campaign crowdsourced an answer to the question: What places have you encountered where women made history? The stated goal of the campaign was to shed a light on 1,000 places connected to women’s history. Notably, the call was unbound by traditional historic preservation mores; instead of focusing on concepts like significance and integrity, the NTHP stated that eligible submissions could be places “famous or unknown, protected or threatened, existing or lost.” To submit a place, the public only needed to upload a picture and a short description. Chris Morris, director of the campaign told Smithsonian Magazine: “This crowdsourcing effort has been very successful in revealing such underappreciated tales, ones of women’s vision, courage and leadership countrywide. They make up the majority of our entries.”[9] The crowdsourcing initiative surpassed 1,000 entries in August and the places and their stories are publicly viewable online.
Resources
1. Jeff Howe, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” Wired, June 1, 2006, https://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/.
2. Enrique Estrellas-Arolas and Fernando González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, “Towards an integrated crowdsourcing definition,” Journal of Information Science 38, no. 2 (March 2012): 189-200.
3. Daren C. Brabham, Crowdsourcing (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013), 48.
4. Mokter Hossain, "Users' motivation to participate in online crowdsourcing platforms," 2012 International Conference on Innovation Management and Technology Research (2012): 310-315.
5. Giles Foody, Linda See, Steffen Fritz, Inian Moorthy, Christoph Perger, Christian Schill and Doreen Boyd, “Increasing the Accuracy of Crowdsourced Information on Land Cover via a Voting Procedure Weighted by Information Inferred from the Contributed Data,” International Journal of Geo-Information 7, no. 3 (February 2018), 2.
6. Andrea Roberts and Mohammad Javad Biazar, “
Black Placemaking in Texas: Sonic and Social Histories of Newton and Jasper County Freedom Colonies,” Current Research in Digital History 2 (2019), https://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v02-06-black-placemaking-in-texas/.
7. “Freedom Colonies Storyteller Portal,” Texas Freedom Colonies Project, accessed November 30, 2020, https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/601969a0ad984f1094f07845daff8d7d.
8. “Where Women Made History,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed November 30, 2020, https://savingplaces.org/womens-history#.X8U8xVNKjlx.
9. Laura Kiniry, “Crowdsourcing Project Aims to Document the Many U.S. Places Where Women Have Made History,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 30, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/crowdsourcing-project-aims-document-many-us-places-where-women-have-made-history-180974535/.
1. Jeff Howe, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” Wired, June 1, 2006, https://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/.
2. Enrique Estrellas-Arolas and Fernando González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, “Towards an integrated crowdsourcing definition,” Journal of Information Science 38, no. 2 (March 2012): 189-200.
3. Daren C. Brabham, Crowdsourcing (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013), 48.
4. Mokter Hossain, "Users' motivation to participate in online crowdsourcing platforms," 2012 International Conference on Innovation Management and Technology Research (2012): 310-315.
5. Giles Foody, Linda See, Steffen Fritz, Inian Moorthy, Christoph Perger, Christian Schill and Doreen Boyd, “Increasing the Accuracy of Crowdsourced Information on Land Cover via a Voting Procedure Weighted by Information Inferred from the Contributed Data,” International Journal of Geo-Information 7, no. 3 (February 2018), 2.
6. Andrea Roberts and Mohammad Javad Biazar, “
Black Placemaking in Texas: Sonic and Social Histories of Newton and Jasper County Freedom Colonies,” Current Research in Digital History 2 (2019), https://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v02-06-black-placemaking-in-texas/.
7. “Freedom Colonies Storyteller Portal,” Texas Freedom Colonies Project, accessed November 30, 2020, https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/601969a0ad984f1094f07845daff8d7d.
8. “Where Women Made History,” National Trust for Historic Preservation, accessed November 30, 2020, https://savingplaces.org/womens-history#.X8U8xVNKjlx.
9. Laura Kiniry, “Crowdsourcing Project Aims to Document the Many U.S. Places Where Women Have Made History,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 30, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/crowdsourcing-project-aims-document-many-us-places-where-women-have-made-history-180974535/.