Before working specifically with crowdsourcing in the digital humanities within this unit, I was very unfamiliar with community projects such as Transcribe Bentham, which we worked with, and Zooniverse, as mentioned in this unit’s reading by Mia Ridge and her fellow authors. The context I knew of crowdsourcing was mainly similar to crowdfunding projects, where you contribute financially. Once I worked with Project Bentham and By The People, I fully understood the implications and importance of crowdsourced projects within the digital humanities.

First, transcription is the type of task within digital humanities that works well with crowdsourcing. As the projects we specifically worked with showed, using crowdsourcing to view and transcribe documents such as letters, journals, and other written material is valuable. Not only can others view things that some may have missed, but with extensive collections such as the By The People, the more hands involved make for less work for each person. This shares that collection of information with the public, allowing those who may not have much interest in the subject to learn and interact with a person’s works. Another task that works well with crowdsourcing is including data annotations, categorizing, and inputting metadata. Many museums and archives are overwhelmed with the number of items and data that need inputting; thus, if they turn to a crowdsourcing model, they can not only engage in completing these tasks faster but also gain more interest in the wider world. Finally, crowdsourcing to create oral histories and storytelling in the broader community creates a more extensive digital archive. It allows those in the general public to be directly involved in significant events while sharing their own stories. As a historian, I also have to look at the value of recording history for the future as never being a bad thing.

Another aspect of crowdsourcing crucial to the project’s success is engaging and retaining those involved. The most important key to the success of a crowdsourcing project is the user interface; if the software being used is complicated to work with, then the users will stop using it. I intercountered this directly within the Transcribe Bentham, since it was one of the first projects of its kind, the software was complicated to work with. Not only were the images not high quality, but the interface did not allow the user to engage in the work as closely as possible. This highlights how critical it is for interfaces with crowdsourcing material to be simplistic and have the required tools for the user to succeed. In the case of transcription, high-quality images are a must. Beyond the interface, another key factor is that the project needs to have clear goals and outcomes to avoid confusion about what the user is contributing to. Every project must make clear what they want to achieve and what they plan to do with the work when it is completed. Finally, a crowdsourcing project needs clear tutorials, instructions, facts, and support for the users to have all of the tools to be successful in helping the creators achieve their goals. If there are no clear instructions or a support page to assist the users, they will likely not even engage in the project. Crowdsourcing allows many different organizations, archives, and museums to interact directly with the public in a new way that allows both parties to gain and work together, which leads to a brighter future for digital humanities and humanities in general.