katherine skinner, executive director, educopia institute digital directions 2012 boston, ma june...

Katherine Skinner, Executive Director, Educopia Institute

Digital Directions 2012Boston, MAJune 14, 2012

It Takes a Community to Curate a Collection

Crowdsourcing and Communitysourcing

Case Studies in communitysourcingSuccessfully “sourcing” your

curatorial needs

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Image source: cooltownstudios.com

Root of the terms: “sourcing”Both are outsourcing processesHistorical precedents exist for eachKey concern: How can you use

“sourcing” to your institution’s advantage?

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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, 06-2012)

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Myth: crowdsourcing is a digital phenomenon

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James Murray, OED founding editor, Scriptorium

Image source: artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

Just a few notable ones… Wikipedia Galaxy Zoo What’s on the Menu Trove FamilySearchIndexing Digitalkoot

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Source: http://menus.nypl.org/

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Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au

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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 2012Image source: www.blog.lendingclub.com

The Crowd: StrangersThe Community: Engaged Network

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Source: Mike Randolph, booooooom.comSource: openreflections.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)

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Irony = like “crowdsourcing”, communitysourcing is an old practice

e.g., National Union Catalog

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Common centerDistribution of workCommunity of engagementConcentrated effort toward unified

goal

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Crowd and Communitysourcing exemplars

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Source: http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/

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Source: http://represent.berkeley.edu/umati/

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Source: metaarchive.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).

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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

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Katherine Skinnerkatherine@metaarchive.org

404-783-2534

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