Crowdsourcing enables a research project to engage “the crowd” (e.g. public participants) in a task, such as classifying or annotating images, or transcribing text. This relatively new technique has been used to support research across a wide range of disciplines, from astronomy to humanities. This workshop explains crowdsourcing by example, using the Zooniverse platform, enabling you to try humanities crowdsourcing projects and see how to set one up. We will also discuss when and where these techniques could be most effective in your digital humanities research.

In this session you’ll need a laptop to use a Web browser, to access Zooniverse.org. After the session you’ll be able to set up your own crowdsourcing project if you wish, so you could think beforehand of images relating to your area of interest that you might like to try (these would need to be freely shareable).

What you will need:

You will need to provide your own computer ideally with the Microsoft Teams desktop app installed, otherwise with a browser (must be Chrome or Edge). Guidance notes for using Teams will be emailed to you when you book. You will need a speaker and microphone for listening and speaking. You need to be online with a reliable internet connection.

During the session you will be accessing Zooniverse.org. After the session you’ll be able to set up your own crowdsourcing project if you wish, so you could think beforehand of images relating to your area of interest that you might like to try (these would need to be freely shareable).