ABSTRACT

To what extent are the values and missions of cultural heritage organisations compatible with the idea of crowdsourcing? While libraries, archives and museums have a long history of collaboration with members of the public, the idea of outsourcing work to the crowds should give cultural heritage professionals pause. It is critical for the cultural heritage community to reflect on the values and ethics at stake in inviting members of the public, often referred to as ‘the crowd’, to tag and classify, transcribe, organise and otherwise add value to digital cultural heritage collection content. 1 In this chapter I offer a philosophical, psychological and technical framework for approaching the components of crowdsourcing I see as compatible with the mission and values of cultural heritage organisations. In the process, I characterise a series of distinct components of crowdsourcing projects and suggest how, when thoughtfully deployed, these components offer some of the most meaningful ways that cultural heritage organisations can serve their missions on the web.