Katherine Skinner, Executive Director, Educopia Institute Digital Directions 2012 Boston, MA June 14, 2012 It Takes a Community to Curate a Collection
Crowdsourcing and Communitysourcing Case Studies in communitysourcing Successfully “sourcing” your curatorial needs Skinner 2012 Image source: cooltownstudios.comcooltownstudios.com
Root of the terms: “sourcing” Both are outsourcing processes Historical precedents exist for each Key concern: How can you use “sourcing” to your institution’s advantage? Skinner 2012
Crowdsourcing: a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people. Can occur online and/or offline Task given to an undefined public rather than a specific body, such as paid employees. (Wikipedia, ) Skinner 2012
Myth: crowdsourcing is a digital phenomenon Skinner 2012 James Murray, OED founding editor, Scriptorium Image source: artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.comartsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com
Just a few notable ones… Wikipedia Galaxy Zoo What’s on the Menu Trove FamilySearchIndexing Digitalkoot Skinner 2012
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Skinner 2012 Source: Rose Holley, National Library of Australia
Crowds are generic bodies of people, not experts in a particular field. This can be a liability if you try to engage the crowd in overly specialized tasks. Skinner 2012 Image source:
The Crowd: Strangers The Community: Engaged Network Skinner 2012 Source: Mike Randolph, booooooom.comMike Randolph Source: openreflections.wordpress.comopenreflections.wordpress.com
Not yet a clearly recognized term “Communitysourcing targets higher-order tasks that can only be performed by specific populations that possess unique skill-sets and knowledge.” (Wing, 2012)Wing, 2012 Skinner 2012
Irony = like “crowdsourcing”, communitysourcing is an old practice e.g., National Union Catalog Skinner 2012
Common center Distribution of work Community of engagement Concentrated effort toward unified goal Skinner 2012
Crowd and Communitysourcing exemplars Skinner 2012
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Skinner 2012 Source: metaarchive.orgmetaarchive.org
Prospective program to cultivate a strong community around library publishing services Would establish a focused center to foster library collaboration in this emerging area (communications forums, advocacy materials, a directory of library publishing programs, etc.) Goal: to enable libraries to produce and thus maintain ownership of digital scholarly content, in turn ensuring that libraries can curate and preserve it (not just rent it and entrust its sustainability to other entities). Skinner 2012
Establish a solid core Document a set of stable parameters Ensure the value of participating is obvious Reward participants for their work Actively foster the sense of community Mark progress openly and in celebratory manners Skinner 2012
Katherine Skinner Skinner 2012