Developing MicroPasts

CAA, 24 April 2014

Chiara Bonacchi

UCL 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

Contributory

Collaborative

Co-creative

Hosted

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!

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

Thank you!

c.bonacchi@ucl.ac.uk