Developing MicroPastsCAA, 24 April 2014

Developing MicroPastsCAA, 24 April 2014

Chiara BonacchiUCL Institute of Archaeology

with Andrew Bevan (UCL) Daniel Pett (British Museum)

Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert (UCL)

Chiara BonacchiUCL Institute of Archaeology

with Andrew Bevan (UCL) Daniel Pett (British Museum)

Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert (UCL)

Crowd-sourcing in archaeology

• Crowd-sourcing as – the practice of seeking information, services or funds in small

chunks from large groups of people, over the internet(definitions discussed in Dunn and Hedges 2012)

• Increasingly explored for supporting public audiences’ interaction with archaeology

– Participation in research– Participation in micro-financing

Crowd-sourcing projects

• Diverse range:– Inspecting imagery for

archaeological features– Transcribing papyri– Interrogating built

architecture– Public recording of metal

finds…

Crowd-funding projects

• Ranging from excavations to dissertations

• Using existing or new dedicated platforms

• Varying degrees of success

Observations

• Mainly contributory models • Little evaluation done

ContributoryContributory

Collaborative

Collaborative

Co-creativeCo-creative

HostedHosted

Models for participation:Public Participation in Scientific Research Project, further elaborated on by Simon

Introducing MicroPasts

• A collaboration between UCL and the British Museum

• Funded by the AHRC, Digital transformations in community research co-production

Aim

• To develop and test an online space where mixed groups of archaeological enthusiasts collaborate to:

- produce innovative open datasets via crowd-sourcing (e.g. CC0, CC-BY)- develop new research projects into archaeology, history and heritage (sometimes involving crowd-sourcing)

- micro-fund those new collaborative projects via crowd-funding

April

Launch

Day!Launch

Day!

MicroPasts website micropasts.org

Component 1: crowd-sourcing platformcrowdsourced.micropasts.org

Crowd-sourcing applications

• 4 applications• Focused on British Prehistory

Help cataloguing

• 30,000 index cards of all known Bronze Age metal artefact finds in the UK from 1800 to 1983

Transcription and geo-referencing

Help creating 3D models

• 3D SfM models of palstaves recorded in the British Museum Bronze Age Index (Photoscan)

Image masking

Component 2: community forumcommunity.micropasts.org

• Discourse (https://github.com/discourse/discourse)

• For research and platform co-design

Component 3: crowd-funding platform

• Neighbor.ly

(https://github.com/neighborly/neighborly)

• Catarse (https://github.com/catarse/catarse)

• Micro-funding of projects co-designed via the forum or externally

• 3 seed projects initially– London’s Lost Waterway– Mapping waterway sites, and

transcribing relevant documents

Evaluation: aims

• How do online communities of interest in the human past form and develop through the MicroPasts platforms?

• How do different contributors engage with archaeology and the past via the MicroPasts platforms, through time, and what is the value of that engagement for community members including institutions?

• What is the sustainability of the MicroPasts platforms, and the applicability of a similar model in other countries?

Evaluation: methodology

• Approach– Quantitative / qualitative– Focus on MP platforms and

social media / ‘control cases’ amongst target audiences

– Online / offline– Link info on: contributors’

profile, opinions, behaviour; data produced; their re-use

– Taking time into account

• Methods (at different stages)– Online surveys – Talks / meet-ups– Google analytics– Pybossa statistics– Diary study– Social media data analysis

(cultural interests and practices)

– Text analysis and SNA

Coming from…• Entry survey on

completion of first crowd-sourcing task– ‘Circles’, whether works

with archaeology / history as part of main job, age, email

• Forum, Google analytics, Pybossa statistics

(Very!) initial data: 16-23 April

Suggesting that…• Community building:

– 195 registered members– UK and US focus– 55% of respondents not

working in archaeology / history

– 24% within our immediate network

• Engagement:– Photo masking: prevalent

‘entry’ application– Transcription: fewer

people, but the most dedicated ones

• Number of tasks• Anonymous contributors:

23-35% on transcription, 53% on masking

– Need for more guidance / visualisation

(Very!) initial data: 16-23 April

Next steps

• Guidance and purposiveness– [3D model viewer]– Information on the Bronze

Age Index / British prehistory / 3D modelling

– Development of badges

• Tasks – Transcription of ‘discovery

cards’

• Crowd-funding platform

Challenges

• Time in relation to the complexity of the platform– Long development times

and little space for front-end evaluation

– Need to co-design the platform as we go along / challenge of not losing users in the process

• Planning an evaluation that– Does not disrupt people’s

engagement– Is discrete but open and

ethically compliant

• Being ready to adapt the evaluation plan in response to people’s interaction while maintaining coherence

• Adoption of new funding practices within a university environment (crowd-funding)

Developing MicroPast

Developing MicroPast

Thank you!c.bonacchi@ucl.ac.uk

Thank you!c.bonacchi@ucl.ac.uk