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Design
听for
听crowdsourcing
Recent
听projects
听at
听the
听New
听York
听Public
听Library

Presented
听to
听the
听Powerhouse
听Museum
8
听December
听2011

Michael
听Lascarides
Senior
听Manager
听for
听Web
听IniFaFves,
听NYPL
@mlascarides
听/
听@nypl
michaellascarides@nypl.org

Monday, December 12, 2011

Map
听Warper
maps.nypl.org
2009

[35:00]

(sadly,
听not
听easy)


Gaze:eers
听&
听directories


Most importantly, locational data is an important pivot point for a lot of other
projects.

What鈥檚
听On
听The
听Menu?
menus.nypl.org
2011

40:00

Buried
听treasure
听
(literally)


Consider
听the
听oyster鈥�


Strangely enough, we始ve gotten a lot of attention for simply putting these canned searches here on the
right.

Food
听enthusiasts,
听chefs,
听
librarians,
听writers,
听
random
听obsessives鈥�
听


School for the deaf in Texas.

Over
听58,000
听visitors
听in
听4.5
听mos.

10,000+
听menus
听fully
听transcribed

600,000+
听dishes
听transcribed

We could have done more but we ran out of digitized
menus!

We could have done more but we ran out of digitized
menus!

Next:
听Linked
听Data


Rules
听for
听good
crowdsourcing
听design


鈥淐hoose
听your
听parents
听wisely鈥�

Start with great raw
materials!

Engage
听on
听an
听emoFonal
听level
听
through
听stories

Expose the stories behind a collection, and make them relatable to users. Use feedback to create narratives (as in Old Weather, where every entry moves the ship along on a map).

Appeal
听to
听the
听user鈥檚
beer
听nature

We have found that participation increases dramatically when we frame our calls for participation in terms of helping the library. Frame it the same way you would any other volunteer opportunity, even
if it鈥檚 one that only lasts 10 seconds.

DemysFfy
听the
听purpose

People want to participate in projects they understand. Practice your 鈥渆levator pitch鈥� for your project: describe it in the time it takes to go ten floors in an elevator with someone. People don鈥檛 get excited
about typing, but they will get excited about participating in the building of an important historical research tool.

Make
听the
听task
听
as
听small
听as
听possible

This one can鈥檛 be stressed enough: pay extremely close attention to exactly what action you鈥檙e asking people to do, and make the task as discrete as possible. If the project involves transcribing a

page of text, ask participants to transcribe a sentence, or a line, or even a single word. Complicated tasks with multiple steps run the risk of ending half-complete.

Encourage
听conFnuaFon

Once the tasks are broken down into small enough pieces, completing one will feel like a bite-size morsel that leaves the participant wanting more. Thank the participant immediately for their

contribution, then immediately ask them to contribute a bit more.

Lower
听the
听barriers
听to
听
parFcipaFon

If at all possible, allow immediate and anonymous contribution. It can definitely be useful to get users to register and sign in, so that you can reward top participants and track participation. But a sign-
up page can be a barrier that may discourage the casual participant. A far better approach is to allow immediate participation without registration, and passively communicate the benefits of signing up
as the user proceeds.

Encourage
听a
听feeling
听of
听shared
听
ownership

While critics of Wikipedia claim that anyone can enter false or vandalizing information, it鈥檚 heartening that the converse is true: anyone can also correct and repair bad information. By allowing other
users to proofread and correct what鈥檚 previously been entered, you give participants a sense of pride that this is their 鈥渘eighborhood鈥� and it should be looked after.

Show
听results
听immediately

This is another critical one. When you鈥檙e collecting input from participants, don鈥檛 send the fruits of their labor off to some unseen holding queue; instead, post the result proudly as completed. In our

鈥淲hat鈥檚 on the Menu?鈥� project, every time a patron transcribes a dish off of a menu, the name of that dish becomes a clickable link leading to a page showing all menus where that dish appears and

facts about it (earliest and latest appearances, high and low prices, etc.). If the dish was incorrectly transcribed, it can always be corrected later. For us, it was far more important to treat the contribution

as official the moment it was transcribed, allowing users to see their transcription become part of the research tool instantly.

Place
听the
听project
听in
听context

Don鈥檛 try to be the center of the universe; link to other reference sources. On the NYPL鈥檚 menu project, at the moment a new dish is transcribed, a page for that dish is created which in turn contains
links to canned searches on other sites from Google to MenuPages to the library catalog, encouraging immediate exploration elsewhere.

Play
听games

The short 鈥減articipate, get feedback鈥� cycle we鈥檙e describing here lends itself extremely well to game dynamics. If possible, keep score, and give top participants some sort of public recognition.

Reward
听e铿€ort

If it鈥檚 possible to keep track of who鈥檚 participating, give rewards. Hold a special reception with refreshments in your library, and only give the invitation to online participants. If you鈥檙e not tracking

the identity of participants, make sure the messaging you display is loaded with gratitude.

Report
听results

Let users know how the project is progressing. If the goal is to transcribe a collection, show how many documents are in that collection, and how many have been completed. Show progress bars to
indicate how far you鈥檝e come and how far there is to go. If you鈥檙e using public participation to create a research tool, use a blog or social media to report how that research has been used by historians,
authors or other researchers and ink to their work.

Share
听the
听fruits
听of
听labor

When content is publicly created, make the resulting product publicly available. If the goal is to create a database of some sort, make the entire database available for download, or expose data with

an Application Programming Interface (API) and encourage anyone to create 鈥渕ashups鈥� of your data. Promote any works that people derive from your data on your site or blog, and encourage others to

do the same.

Build
听a
听community

Getting patrons involved in a project is an ideal opportunity to unite people with a common interest around your collections. Use social networks, a blog with comments, and/or an online forum to

build a conversation with the people who are you top users. Listen to feedback, take suggestions, and point out interesting findings.

Thank
听you!
Presented
听to
听the
听Powerhouse
听Museum
8
听December
听2011

Michael
听Lascarides
Senior
听Manager
听for
听Web
听IniFaFves,
听NYPL
@mlascarides
听/
听@nypl
michaellascarides@nypl.org


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