Marin Escalera

Crowdsourcing is a new topic that has come along with the rise of the internet and digital history. Stemming from the word “outsourcing”, crowdsourcing is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as “the activity of giving tasks to a large group of people or to the general public.” In the case of its involvement in digital history the tasks are done online. In the Handbook of Digital Public History three chapters go over the meaning, the positives, the negatives and the processes that go into crowdsourcing in digital history. Serge Noiret starts off the topic by giving a clear definition of what crowdsourcing is and how it’s used in the history field. Giving examples of projects such as “What’s on the Menu”, “September 11” and the “Japan Disasters Digital Archive.” Seeing all the different types of archives show the diversity in history and motivate for the outreach of the public. Since these projects and achieves look for the public experience when it deals with collecting media of an event and for the public’s help when it comes to transcriptions. Though by accepting so many things from the public comes the question of how is it all managed? Noiret covers this theme in his chapter over “Sharing Authority.” This is an essential topic to cover when discussing crowdsourcing since like with most things, order is needed and balance is required to keep things organized. As historians we need to be sure to listen to the public’s input from their experiences without over running it but at the same to not follow it blindly. So in the end it becomes a cooperative project between the public and the historians. Pierluigi Feliciati discusses this cooperation in the chapter “Planning with the Public” and makes the connection to digital public history. Highlighting that “the goals of public history should be planned with the public in mind, not merely for the public” (pg. 384) which ties in together with the theme of crowdsourcing which brings in the public to contribute instead of just being spectators. Feliciati also discusses the lifecycle of projects and the questions that are asked in each phase of building a project. The questions are asked in each phase proved to be very insight when it came turn for me to check out some crowdsourcing projects.

          The first project I looked into, and my favorite of the bunch, was the “From the Page” crowdsourcing platform which asks for volunteers to transcribe a wide range of documents. Despite being a very interactive site it did bring up with many documents, the site itself wasn’t too difficult to navigate and even explained how the process is done. Also included in its home page is the archives and universities which trust the site, giving it its credibility which was a concern that was discussed in and Noiret and Fliciati’s chapter.  The site also provides the status of each document, ranging from incomplete, to in review or in progress. So it’s a very user friendly site that is very welcoming to both experienced historians who are very knowledgeable in the topic and a member of the public who may just be interested in trying it out for fun. Another site I looked into was the “Library of Virginia”, more specifically their collections and resources section. This site was a bit more difficult to navigate since it had more going on though this could be due to that it’s not only dedicated to a digital project such as “From the Page.” It has it projects laid out in a way that anyone could go through them though. As a library it connects you to the digital project sites rather than being the site itself. So it works as guide to help you find what you need. Similar to the “From the page it feels welcoming both to scholars and the general public. These sites allow everyone be a part of crowdsourcing and try it out while also ensuring that credibility is still factor through reviews by historians.

Overall the readings covered the main theme of crowdsourcing and involving the public in many types of projects. After being able to go through a few myself it really is an interesting and entertaining way to contribute to history. Many site make it simple so anyone with an interest can go in and contribute any way they can but at the same time these contributions are checked by historians to ensure the credibility of the information. So despite possible concerns of crowdsourcing making digital public history unreliable it is seen through the readings and the sites itself that much thought and process is put into these projects just like any other archival collection would be. It’s just a new way to keep history going as seen with the projects that have emerged with web 2.0 and the increasing use of the digital sites by the GLAM section of public history.

Serge Noiret, “Crowdsourcing and User Generated Content: The Raison d’Etre of digital Public History” in Handbook of Digital Public History (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, 2022)

Serge Noiret, “Sharing Authority in Online Collaborative Public History Practices” in Handbook of Digital Public History (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, 2022)

Pierluigi Feliciati, “Planning with the Public: How to Co-develop Digital Public History Projects?” in Handbook of Digital Public History (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, 2022)

“Crowdsourcing” , https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/crowdsourcing