“Success is down to the Participants” The Online Participatory Archive

Alexandra Eveleigh

IHR Archives & Society SeminarStewart House, London

20 March 2012

http://xkcd.com/386/ (CC BY-NC)

2007 - 2008Emergence of the

‘Participatory Archive’

Trends to 2012

The Triumphal Rhetoric of Archives 2.0

Library of Congress, flickr Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179137913/ No known copyright restrictions

• Active engagement of archives users• Co-creation of new historical meaning• Liberation from hierarchically structured description• Democratisation of professional archival practice

Traditions: Serious Leisure & Volunteering

Online Community

“I suppose everybody likes to belong to something”

Mike Rybinski at http://ccit300-f06.wikispaces.com/Online+communities (CC BY-SA)

>>Untiteld<<, 2005 by Joe Koelewijn http://www.vvork.com/?p=4224 (via Alexander Bohn http://www.flickr.com/people/fish2000/)

Feedback Loop

• How does user participation fit into the research workflow?

• What benefits do participants derive from their contributions?

• “Success is down to the participants”

• Evolution - replicating traditional engagement practice online

• Building bridges to pre-existing knowledge-sharing networks

• Attracting “seasoned researchers” & “preaching to the converted”(?)

Linarite Crystals from Esgairhir Mine by Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales http://www.flickr.com/photos/museumwales/3883613059/ (CC BY-NC)

Crystallisation: Mobilising Participation

Gatekeeping

Buckingham Palace Gate by Wally Gobetz http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/301059760/ (CC BY-NC-ND)

• Enticing newcomers through the gates: • Identifying “peripheral yet productive” tasks (e.g. error

correction)• Valuing both content and process contributions• Encouraging participant involvement in managing the

community (e.g. Old Weather forum moderators)• Involving participants in ‘tidying’ activity and quality control

(e.g. Velehanden indexing control system)

Challenging Archival Authority?

Frédéric Bisson http://www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/4297491287 (CC BY)

Provenance

Date

Participation Machines

“What they are looking to do is to make it easy for them to do the work. They want it so that we give them proper structures or guidelines to work to, because they don’t want to create rubbish. So they want that – and they want some feedback”

Interview P6

ralphbijker http://www.flickr.com/photos/17258892@N05/2588347668 (CC BY)

Crowd by James Cridland http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810/ (CC BY)

Crowds: The Community Viewed Upside Down

• Open membership, low barriers to entry• Dip-in, dip-out participation• Granular task, predefined by external authority• Anonymous• Game-like motivational tools (leader boards, badges)

measuring quantity of input• Statistical mechanisms of quality control

• Core community at the heart uphold regulation

Participants

ArchivistsResearchers

The Participatory Archive

Spectrum of Participation (1)

Rainbow by Bryant Olsen http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanto/3501253227/ (CC BY-NC)

Community Crowd

Motivation Intrinsic, Social Extrinsic, Individual

Activity Type Sharing memories, Interpretation

Analysis, Entering data

Knowledge Transfer Tacit Explicit

Spectrum of Participation (2)

Rainbow by Bryant Olsen http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanto/3501253227/ (CC BY-NC)

Community Crowd Architecture

Motivation Intrinsic, Social Extrinsic, Individual Unconscious

Activity Type Sharing memories, Interpretation

Analysis, Entering data

Incidental / Serendipitous

Knowledge Transfer Tacit Explicit ?Implicit

alexandra.eveleigh.09@ucl.ac.uk@ammeveleigh