Us and Them | Me and You | from swerve of shore to bend of bay

Take Down the Fences … Here Comes the Crowd

IMLS Focus 2015 | New Orleans | 16 November 2015 | Martin R. Kalfatovic | @UDCMRK

Harnessing the Collective Wisdom of the Crowd to Generate Content

library.si.edu

HERE COMES EVERYBODY (HCE)

“[B]ecause the minimum costs of being an organization in the first place are relatively high, certain activities may have some value but not enough to make them worth pursuing in any organized way. New social tools are altering this equation by lowering the costs of coordinating group action.”

Clay ShirkyHere Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008)

The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the

library.si.edu

THE GLOBAL BHL

library.si.edu

Art to …

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

“… for the increase and diffusion of knowledge…”

A microcosm of the GLAM community

… Zoo (& all in between)

Art to Zoology … and all between

library.si.edu

US … US … US ...

library.si.edu

AND THEM … THEM … THEM ...

library.si.edu

US AND THEM ...

6,373

7,379,304,539

library.si.edu

CONNECTING ...

@TranscribeSI

@SILibraries

@BioDivLibrary

@MeghaninMotionDr Meghan Ferriter

@FieldBookProj

library.si.edu

Citizen scienceCollaborative innovation network Collective consciousnessCollective intelligenceCommons-based peer productionCrowd computingCrowdcastingCrowdfixingDistributed thinkingFlash mobGamificationGovernment crowdsourcingParticipatory monitoringSmart mobSocial collaborationVirtual Collective ConsciousnessVirtual volunteeringWisdom of the crowd

CITIZEN SCIENCE ...

library.si.edu

CITIZEN SCIENCE … CIRCA 1856

The Smithsonian's Secretary, Joseph Henry, establishes a network of over 600 meteorological observers around the world and the send back weather reports that are then compiled and published by the Smithsonian.

library.si.edu

CITIZEN SCIENCE … CIRCA 1856

library.si.edu

CITIZEN SCIENCE … #VOLUNPEERS 2015

library.si.edu

FIRST THERE IS A PLATFORM …

Today we use more

sophisticated tools

across various

platforms.

l > Flickr (for BHL images)l > Gamification (for OCR correction)l > Science Gossip (for BHL images)l > Transcription (for manuscript

material)

library.si.edu

CROWDSOURCING FLICKR IMAGE TAGGING

library.si.edu

Having our images in Flickr made it possible to reach

new audiences! The crowd helped to make our

images discoverable using tags.

DISCOVERABILITY AND REUSE

library.si.edu

SPECIALIST METADATA FROM THE CROWD

Machine Tagsnamespace:predicate=“value”

namespace = taxonomy

predicate = binomial(or trinomial…)

“value” = Name

taxonomy:binomial=“Zea mays”

library.si.edu

SPECIALIST METADATA FROM THE CROWD

taxonomy:binomial=“Magnolia hodgsonii”

library.si.edu

GAMIFICATION: THE PLAYFUL CROWD

Our point of departure must be the conception of an almost childlike play-sense expressing itself in various play-forms, some serious, some playful, but all rooted in ritual and productive of culture by allowing the innate human need of rhythm, harmony, change, alternation, contrast and climax, etc., to unfold in full richness.

Johan HuizingaHomo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture

library.si.edu

PURPOSEFUL GAMING PROJECT

@WulateWilliam Ulate

@trosesandlerTrish Rose-Sandler

library.si.edu

GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION

Smorball is a challenging browser game that asks players to correctly type the words they see on the screen–punctuation and all. The more words they type correctly, the quicker opposing teams are defeated, and the closer the Eugene Melonballers get to the Dalahäst Trophy

library.si.edu

GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION

Beanstalk. Do you have a green thumb? Test your skills as the victor of vines by typing the words shown on the screen, and grow your beanstalk from a tiny tendril to massive cloudscraper in this calming, zen-like typing game.

library.si.edu

GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION

Beanstalk. Do you have a green thumb? Test your skills as the victor of vines by typing the words shown on the screen, and grow your beanstalk from a tiny tendril to massive cloudscraper in this calming, zen-like typing game.

library.si.edu

GAMIFICATION OF OCR CORRECTION

Beanstalk. Do you have a green thumb? Test your skills as the victor of vines by typing the words shown on the screen, and grow your beanstalk from a tiny tendril to massive cloudscraper in this calming, zen-like typing game.

library.si.edu

SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE

The publication of books and periodicals are key locations for visualizing knowledge about the natural world. These will have a direct impact on the research of historians who are trying to figure out why, how often, and who made images depicting a whole range of natural sciences in the Victorian period.

library.si.edu

SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE

We are trying to gather 3

types of information via

image crowdsourcing:

o Where are the images located

within BHL books?

o What type of image are we

dealing with?

o What is the content of the

image?

Jordan, David Starr. The Fishes of Samoa. 1906.

library.si.edu

SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE

As a user, you would answer “Yes” or “No” to indicate

if there was an image on the page.

http://sciencegossip.org

library.si.edu

SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE

You would then indicate the type of image: drawing,

chart, photograph, or map.

http://sciencegossip.org

library.si.edu

SCIENCE GOSSIP: ZOONIVERSE

You can then enter content information, like common

and species names. This, for instance, in the Java Finch.

http://sciencegossip.org

library.si.edu

SMITHSONIAN TRANSCRIPTION CENTER

library.si.edu

SMITHSONIAN TRANSCRIPTION CENTER

library.si.edu

SMITHSONIAN FIELD BOOKS

library.si.edu

“There we had the first definitive news that Austria had declared war against Serbia (on the 28th), but still everywhere hope was expressed the peace would come, and it was reported that the King of England would arbitrate the dispute.” – Bohumil Shimek

SMITHSONIAN FIELD BOOKS: HIDDEN GEMS

Shimek, Bohumil. Diary, European trip 1914. Bohumil Shimek Papers, 1878-1936.

library.si.edu

LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS

Libraries, archives

and museums (LAMs

or + galleries,

GLAMS) have been

actively participating

in harnessing the

“wisdom of the

crowds” for many

years now …

Denver Public Library > < Denver Art MuseumFlickr | Traveling Librarian

library.si.edu

LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS

But too often, this

has resulted in

new silos of

information …

innovative as that

silo might be!

Corn Silo, Rochester, MNFlickr | Traveling Librarian

library.si.edu

LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS

… it’s time to start

not just using the

crowd, but use what

the crowd has

created to deepen

our knowledge of

library, archives, and

museum collections! Changed Priorities Ahead, LondonFlickr | Traveling Librarian

library.si.edu

USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

library.si.edu

USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

library.si.edu

USING THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD

library.si.edu

USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

library.si.edu

USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

library.si.edu

USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

library.si.edu

USE OF TRANSCRIPTIONS IN CMS

library.si.edu

MAKING TRANSCRIPTIONS DISCOVERABLE

library.si.edu

BHL AND FIELD BOOKS

library.si.edu

BHL AND FIELD BOOKS

library.si.edu

VOLUNPEER

I want to be entertained, interested and learn something new. I also want to feel like I’m contributing to the greater good and, in my small way, to the progression of science in general. I’ll keep working on a project if I believe it is worthwhile and interesting. I tend to be one of those people who finish what they start, so task completion is a motivation in itself.

Siobhan LeachmanWhat Makes a Citizen Science Project Successful?

library.si.edu

HUMPHREY CHIMPDEN EARWICKER (HCE)

… riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the ...

James JoyceFinnegan's Wake (1939)

Give the keys away … here they come … to help us / them!

library.si.edu

Thanks to...Smithsonian Stafl Suzanne Pilskl Grace Costantinol Meghan Ferriterl Lesley Parillal Ricc Ferrantel Ching-Hsien Wang

Missouri Botanical Gardenl William Ulatel Trish Rose-Sandlerl Mike Lichtenberg

… and most of all to our crowdsof Volunpeers!

library.si.edu

Beanstalk Gamel http://beanstalkgame.org/l BHL Flickr Setsl http://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/s

etsl "Meterorology at the Smithsonian" l http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/henr

y/meteorologyl Science Gossipl http://www.sciencegossip.org/l Smithsonian Dashboardl http://dashboard.si.edu/l Smithsonian Transcription Centerl https://transcription.si.edu/l Smorball Gamel http://smorballgame.org/l What Makes a Citizen Science Project

Successful?l http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/w

hat-makes-citizen-science-project.htmll Worldodometersl http://www.worldometers.info/world-

population/

Sources and Notes