Learning to Trust the Crowd: Smithsonian Transcription Center Case Study

Meghan Ferriter, Smithsonian Transcription Center

I continue to hear issues related to sharing information and that is the one that stands out the most to me, whether that is sharing information on how to do what we are doing already really well, or how to improve, how to accept and receive feedback from our peer community here and elsewhere: “You’re doing that okay so far, but here’s a way to tweak that even better.” One thing I would like to continue to do as well is share data that is being generated through these different processes.

The three challenges that stand out to me with the Smithsonian Transcription Center are: trust, workflow, and acknowledgment. I believe people come to experiences carrying their cumulative experiences, their baggage, with them. Sometimes that can be really helpful in expanding the experience, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to work out exactly what is happening in a collaborative or crowdsourcing project. But sometimes it is like Mary Poppins’ carpetbag, with a depth and tools inside that we didn’t even know existed. By trusting in the potential and the well-meaning nature of the community, we can tap into some of those hidden reservoirs of skill and knowledge that lie within a community.

We have also seen the results. I think people here have subscribed to this idea, to varying degrees: we want to trust the crowd. Now we need to think about ways that we can make a cultural shift toward working with that trust, rather than repeated asking whether or not we should trust the crowd. Trust is risky. Working with trust changes design elements, moves us to more effective tools within our system, and trust helps me communicate with our volunteers in the Transcription Center. It generates and supports the rhetorical approach that I use when giving instructions, improving the words and images and workflows of participation in the project. I also think trust makes authentic communication possible, mostly by becoming vulnerable in that moment. Trust is a vital component of successful public engagement and it also remains challenging.

The reality of crowdsourcing is a call for help—asking people to relieve some of the constraints that projects are experiencing; whether with expertise or in scale. I find workflows and allocating resources at the foreground of managing projects. It is a frequent concern heard around preparing projects for the Smithsonian Transcription Center, and something I think about every day. We can continue to break down the steps of these types of projects to consider ways to improve and insert volunteers into the workflow in different ways; not just in the crowdsourcing of information but also in the activity currently performed by staff members as they are working in the data curation element. With this approach we can see an experience that is both small and manageable, and connected and coherent overall.

And finally, I think the last challenge is acknowledgement, which is intentionally considering the best ways to acknowledge contributions and create many ways for participants, organizations and voices to join. One of those approaches through which I’m constantly thinking: how can we honor the organizational side of the bargain and articulate that through our actions. We are doing our part, you are helping us and we are helping you. It is more than just walking around high-fiving people virtually or celebrating them, which is very important, don’t get me wrong! I’d never want to be quoted as saying that’s not important because it is one of the main things that I do! Yet, I think it is also building that acknowledgment into the system; finding ways, for example, of noting the crowdsourcing efforts in newly created collection records, as we do in the Collection Service Center.

We also have to come to terms with some of the challenging pieces of acknowledgment, such as respecting the community’s new knowledge and providing them opportunities to use the knowledge they’ve generated and created in new ways, and find ways to make products available in less restricted ways – opening the entire process with interoperability in mind and other related challenges.

Finally, I think that acknowledgment requires us being there, listening, thoughtful development, open communication, and a willingness to go a few extra steps to demonstrate that crowdsourcing is important to us from an internal organizational perspective.

This presentation was a part of the workshop Engaging the Public: Best Practices for Crowdsourcing Across the Disciplines. See the full report here.