by Alun Edwards http://projects.oucs.ox.ac.uk/runcoco/events/5May/Crowdsourcing_2010_05_05.pdf

1. Crowdsourcing
An overview
http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
Alun Edwards
Learning Technologies Group, University of Oxford

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC96-T_QEsI

3. The general public has been
participating in academic work
for generations

4. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/

5. Universities are increasing
investment in their surrounding
communities
HEFCE Strategic Plan 2006–2011,
programmes to support the public
engagement agenda.
• The Beacons for Public Engagement
• JISC Business & Community Engagement
• E.g. MMU “looking over the wall”

6. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/so-you-want-to-be-a-scientist/

7. Commons
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Commons
Flickr Commons
Flickr

8. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

11. Singapore- no camera by daniellih on Flickr licensed under Creative Commons

12. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/who_am_i_intro.aspx
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

13. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit
http://www.flickr.com/groups/couplingup/

14. Universities using the public’s
technology to crowdsource
research
• Screensaver Project
• (Oxford University with the National
Foundation for Cancer Research)
• SETI
• (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence)
• Quake-Catcher Network
• Turn your laptop into a seismic
sensor (QCNLive)

15. Uni’s use public’s
technology to crowdsource
research:
http://qcn.stanford.edu/

16. Universities using the public’s
enthusiasm and their
knowledge to crowdsource
research
• National History Museum cherry
tree blossom

17. Uni use public and their
knowledge to crowdsource
research:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/british-natural-history/tree-survey/index.html

18. Experts setting-up wikis and
blogs for users to contribute to
• Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
• WikiMentalHealth
• Crime and Justice Students
• Personality Rights Database
• Science of Ghosts blog

19. http://scienceofghosts.wordpress.com/

20. http://scienceofghosts.wordpress.com/

21. Learning from the Experts
True stories are not the best medicine but
they are nutritious and sustaining. They
feed the mind with information and the
heart with hope and strength
Philip Pullman
The best teaching is taught by the patient
himself
Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine,
University of Oxford (1905-1920)

22. Learning from the Experts
• Patient Voice Team
• (e.g. the School of Medicine, University of
Leeds)
• Healthtalkonline
• Youthealthtalk
• (Health Experience Research Group at the
University of Oxford)

23. http://www.healthtalkonline.org/

24. http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/the-edgeless-university

25. Community-contribution within
academic work
• BBC The People’s War, and the
History of the World
• The Great War Archive
• Galaxy Zoo
• Museum tagging projects
• Numerous digital storytelling
initiatives

26. Benefit for contributor and
community
So finally to the GWA and RunCoCo
GWA, bulletholes and benefits
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/

27. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/inyourarea/

28. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

29. Galaxy Zoo

30. http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/freeze_tag/start.php
http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

31. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/crowdsourcing/

32. http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.gwap.com/gwap/

33. http://futureoftheinternet.org/

34. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEL4aAAjgo and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3h-rae3uo

35. https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit

36. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/mps-expenses
http://runcoco.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

37. Do you check volunteers’
workings?

38. Community-contribution should
benefit:
• The community
• The participants / the volunteers
• Research

39. Benefit for contributor and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rzlvn
community

40. Benefit for contributor and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rzlvn
community

41. Benefit for contributor and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rzlvn
community

42. Benefit for contributor and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rzlvn
community

43. Benefit for contributor and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rzlvn
community

44. In building community collections,
we’re also building communities
themselves
• Pitfalls:
• Quality of material and the quality
and validity of metadata
• Less resource intensive to digitise
BUT more resource intensive in terms
of marketing and engagement
• Building a community requires long-
term support

45. Many advantages to community
collections:
• Engaging the general public in
University projects
• Releasing unseen material, providing
new avenues for research and teaching
• Preserving histories that may have
been lost
• Economies of Scale
• Communities can become self-
serving

46. Community-contribution should
benefit:
• The community
• The participants, contributors or
the volunteers
• The institution and/or
• Research, Learning & Teaching

47. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit