1. P R O D U C T
P R O C E S S ?
O R
C R E A T I N G
P A T H W A Y S A N D
C A T A L Y Z I N G
A D V E N T U R E I N T H E
A R C H I V E S W I T H T H E
S M I T H S O N I A N
T R A N S C R I P T I O N
C E N T E R
@meghaninmotion
Meghan Ferriter, Ph.D.
16 July 2015

2. Question:
In what ways might
crowdsourcing &
knowledge-sharing
inform cultural heritage
professional practice?
What can be gained
from and what is
risked by inviting
crowds to work
with your
collections?
Can you bring together
collections, workflows,
and crowdsourced
transcription to
effectively extend
research and
engagement?
BetterBEST
SPOILER:
Yes, it appears so!

4. Smithsonian Transcription Center

5. Digital Smithsonian: Priorities
• Enhance the in-person visitor experience
• Digitize the collections
• Make content easy to find & use
• Spark engagement and participation

6. T H E G O A L ?
Create: indexed, searchable text

10. T H E R E S U L T
Engagement
Connections
Access
Workflow
Prioritization + Collaboration

11. Is it worth the risk? And what about the challenges?

12. How does it work?
• Peer-review Process: Transcribe - Review -
Approve
• ANYONE can Transcribe, anywhere, around the
world, at any time
• Only registered volunteers can Review
• A final pass by Smithsonian staff for Approval

13. The TC Workflow

15. MOTLEY CREW: (informal) n. - a roughly organized
assembly of characters of various backgrounds,
appearance, and character
D R A W I N G A M O T L E Y C R E W
…Containing characters of conflicting personality,
varied backgrounds and a wide array of methods for
overcoming adversity - achieved through the
narrative using the various specialties, traits and
other personal advantages of each member

16. E A R N I N G L I F E L O N G
L E A R N E R S ?

17. Risks & Concerns
• Misbehavior & Vandalism
• Quality & Trustworthiness
• Process & Workflow - Center & Unit
• Resources - Units & Types of Volunteers
• Motivation - If We Build It, Will They Come?

18. Answering Risks & Concerns
• Misbehavior & Vandalism - not so much, so far
• Quality & Accuracy - on-going evaluation
• Process & Workflow - Improving Design, Distributing Tasks
• Resources - Deepening understanding: Units & Volunteers
• Motivation - They’re here! Best ways to extend engagement?

19. T H E R E S U L T
Engagement
Connections
Access
Workflow + Prioritization + Collaboration

20. Transcription Center:
By The Numbers
In just over 2 years, since June 2013:
5,187 Digital Volunteers from 176 countries have transcribed &
reviewed 107,529 pages, including
• 27,440 pages from Archives Collections
• 47,394 Biodiversity Specimens & Labels

21. S U C C E S S !
• Making PDFs (product) available to the Public
• Making Notes field to communicate
• Connecting People, Discoveries, & Contexts of Projects
• Integrating New Units
• Watching Community form, collaborate, (fight!), & grow
• Connecting TC data to external sources
• 7 Day Review Challenges + HangTime + Knowledge
• Improving workflows and addressing SI groups’ needs

22. RESULTS
Engagement

24. How We Do It
• Focus on Process AND Product
• Collaborative & Cross-Promotional
• Two-way/multi-directional learning
• Soft gamification in social programming - collaborative
competition
• Focus on skills acquisition & sharing
• No public leaderboard
• Behind-the-scenes access & acknowledgement

25. Collaborative Competition &
Highlighting Discovery

26. • Helping researchers by making indexed, searchable text from
Collections Search Center and providing PDF downloads from
our project pages and extracting data for collections records
• Exploring what has been transcribed to highlight hidden
stories with #TranscribeTuesday, #FridayFinalLines and
showcasing challenges with #MondayMindmelter
• Working together in our #7DayReviewChallenge, Contribute &
Connect, and Hangouts
• Creating new research questions and enriching global
resources relating to the wealth of people, organizations,
places and topics in Smithsonian Collections
We Stay Busy

27. We Stay Busy

28. • Share projects
• Leave notes in Projects
• Share their success
• Ask for help from other #volunpeers
Working Together

29. Working Together

30. Contribute…

31. …and Connect

33. RESULTS
Connections

40. RESULTS
Access

42. PDF Download (free)

43. PDF Download (free)

44. Accessing PDFs
From our 6 Archives: 2002 downloads in the last year…
with no additional effort required from archival staff!

45. RESULTS
Quality?

46. Assessing Quality
• Peer review
• Evolving and Iterative Learning
• Precise & Scoped + Specific to Unit
• Giving us more than we need + Refining Qs
• Volunteers “get” peer review… sometimes!

47. Henry Cushier Raven: OCR v VOLs

48. RESULTS
Workflow &
Prioritization

52. Challenges Remain
• Resources: Time, Money, Brains
• Maintaining Balance, Ecology of Site
• Digitizing Material
• Workflow demands
• Sharing & Helping Other
Crowdsourcing/CitSci/Digital Humanities Projects
• Participation by New Units

53. Questions?
Ask & Share…
ferriterm@si.edu
@meghaninmotion
Thank you!