In “From Tagging to Theorizing: Deepening Engagement with Cultural Heritage through Crowdsourcing,” Mia Ridge discusses crowdsourcing within the context of museums. She considers crowdsourcing to be an extension of volunteer practices, facilitated by technology and at a larger scale. Ridge argues that crowdsourcing should be recognized as a valuable form of public engagement, even if “the crowd” and the project initiators never meet face-to-face. She provides suggestions for effective crowdsourcing projects, including conscientious design that makes use of proper scaffolding and integrating games. Ridge emphasizes the importance of accessibility and ease of use: “Some of the less successful projects I have analyzed have failed in part because their initial task was too complex or required too much domain-specific knowledge” (439). Beyond their usefulness in completing large scale data entry, digitization, transcription, or cataloguing tasks, Ridge stresses the value of crowdsourcing for fostering sustained interest and satisfaction via interaction in a museum’s holdings.

Work cited

Ridge, Mia. 2013. “From Tagging to Theorizing: Deepening Engagement with Cultural Heritage through Crowdsourcing.” Curator 56(4): 435–50.