Crowdsourcing as Practice and Method in the Smithsonian Transcription Center

Abstract

This article employs qualitative research design and methods to examine volunteer motivation and continued experiences of participation in the Smithsonian Institution's Transcription Center (TC), a large-scale crowdsourcing project and space for engagement with collections, Smithsonian Institution staff, and peer volunteers, or volunpeers. Data were obtained from two focus groups conducted on August 24 and 25, 2015. Following these discussions, an experimental method of crowdsourced authorship was developed by the researchers and participants wherein seven volunteers involved in the focus groups became participant researchers who collaborated with the two lead researchers to analyze and interpret the data. This authorship method mirrors the very nature of crowdsourcing by gaining investment and contribution from several volunteers as a means both of collaborating and sharing authority and of distributing labor and yielding a broader perspective in terms of point of view and thus a more diverse result. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to highlight five reasons volunteers participate in the TC and, second, to present an experimental methodology of crowdsourced authorship in conjunction with qualitative research.