Comments on: The Rise and Fall of the Curator http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/2011/12/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-curator/ Mon, 21 May 2012 10:34:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Mia http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/2011/12/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-curator/#comment-11062 Mia Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:33:21 +0000 http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/?p=538#comment-11062 With all due respect, I don't agree with your definition of crowdsourcing, and I think it weakens your argument. Most cultural heritage crowdsourcing projects (such as Old Weather, Galaxy Zoo, Transcribe Bentham, etc) are based on small, discrete pieces of work (i.e. microtasks) rather than specialist knowledge. Participants might learn or deepen specific skills (such as transcribing Jeremy Bentham's handwriting) but they don't require vast wells of expertise or knowledge. That's not to say that there isn't expertise outside the museum - of course there is, but again, that's different to the original conception of 'the wisdom of crowds'. Cheers, Mia With all due respect, I don’t agree with your definition of crowdsourcing, and I think it weakens your argument.

Most cultural heritage crowdsourcing projects (such as Old Weather, Galaxy Zoo, Transcribe Bentham, etc) are based on small, discrete pieces of work (i.e. microtasks) rather than specialist knowledge. Participants might learn or deepen specific skills (such as transcribing Jeremy Bentham’s handwriting) but they don’t require vast wells of expertise or knowledge.

That’s not to say that there isn’t expertise outside the museum - of course there is, but again, that’s different to the original conception of ‘the wisdom of crowds’.

Cheers, Mia

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