This paper associated with these slides analyses the theoretical and practical implications of crowdsourcing two different kinds of text: transcriptions and annotations. Two projects that adopt the model for these respective purposes are Transcribe Bentham and Ossian Online. They exhibit differing motivations for choosing this model, and aim to crowdsource tasks whose requirements and biases place particular demands and restrictions on participants. As a consequence, the accuracy of the term crowdsource must be questioned for more subjective tasks that require the generation of original intellectual content.

1. Crowdsourcing texts of many
dimensions
Justin Tonra
National University of Ireland, Galway
@jtonra

2. http://www.transcribe-bentham.da.ulcc.ac.uk/
http://ossianonline.org/

3. Microtasking projects use crowdsourcing to solve many
detailed problems of the sort that would be difficult to solve
computationally, in a short amount of time (e.g. reCAPTCHA).
Walsh, et al.

6. Macrotaskingprojects use crowdsourcing to accomplish
more complicated tasks that rely on the specific skills of participants.
These open-ended, socially negotiated tasks may go further than
processing information, and such ‘crowd-wisdom’ projects can actually
create new information (e.g. Wikipedia).
Walsh, et al.

10. Bibliography
Barr, Rebecca Anne, and Justin Tonra, eds. Ossian Online. National University of Ireland, Galway. Web.
Causer, Tim, Justin Tonra, and Valerie Wallace. “Transcription Maximized; Expense Minimized? Crowdsourcing and Editing The
Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 27.2 (2012): 119–137. Web.
Causer, Tim, and Melissa Terras. “‘Many Hands Make Light Work. Many Hands Together Make Merry Work’: Transcribe
Bentham and Crowdsourcing Manuscript Collections.” Crowdsourcing Our Cultural Heritage. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. 57–88.
Print.
Causer, Tim, and Valerie Wallace. “Building A Volunteer Community: Results and Findings from Transcribe Bentham.” Digital
Humanities Quarterly 6.2 (2012): n. pag. Web.
Latour, Bruno. An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence. Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. Web.
Praxis Program Team. Prism. Scholars’ Lab. Web.
Siemens, Ray, Meaghan Timney, Cara Leitch, Corina Koolen, and Alex Garnett. “Pertinent Discussions Toward Modeling the
Social Edition: Annotated Bibliographies.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 6.1 (2012): n. pag. Web.
Transcribe Bentham. The Bentham Project, University College London. Web.
tranScriptorium. tranScriptorium Consortium. Web.
Walsh, Brandon, Claire Maiers, Gwen Nally, Jeremy Boggs, and Praxis Program Team. “Crowdsourcing Individual
Interpretations: Between Microtasking and Macrotasking.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 29.3 (2014): 379–386. Web.