Crowdsourcing: the pros, the cons and the possibilities

Public History Student Blog

By Marlinde Venema

The term ‘crowdsourcing’ has become increasingly more popular in academic and mainstream media, because more and more businesses seem to take to the idea. The concept of crowdsourcing, that holds that commercial enterprises and scientific institutes turn to the public for (online) input in their ventures, has been a source of interest as well as concern. While some are raving about this new phenomenon because of its seemingly democratic nature, others are worried that crowdsourcing might just mean the end of ‘the professional’. But where there is risk, there is opportunity. What could historians take from interacting with the public?

The myth of amateur crowds

Darren C. Brahbam, a university professor who specializes in public relations and new media, talks about the imaging of crowdsourcing in press articles in his paper ‘The Myth of Amateur Crowds: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Crowdsourcing Coverage’ and in his book Crowdsourcing.[1] The author focusses on the use of the word ‘amateur’ in relation tot crowdsourcing. Brabham has a serious issue with people who participate in crowdsourcing ventures being referred to as amateurs. He claims that the distinction so often made between amateurs and professionals is not quite so obvious. A lot of the time those so-called amateurs are actually well trained and certified professionals who for whatever reason are not part of what Brabham calls ‘the dominant economic system’. For example: someone might want to build up a resume or wants to use crowdsourcing as a means to get a job. Being an amateur does not automatically mean being incompetent.

This ‘myth of the amateur crowds’ is standing in the way of a fair look at the work that these often underpaid ‘amateurs’ do and the contributions that they make, says Brabham. After all, the companies that they work for are profiting greatly from this arrangement. Instead of being condescending, we should want to include these ‘amateur crowds’ in the professional system, because they are valuable assets and therefore deserve equal workers rights and equal pay.

Research method

The research that has led Brabham to his conclusions, was done by following the critical discourse analysis-method (CDA). This hermeneutic approach was applied to one hundred press articles from the LexisNexis-database. Brabham based the selection of those articles on the result of a search with two keywords: ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘amateur’. In his paper ‘The myth of amateur crowds’ Brabham more or less explains how the method works although he doesn’t make it clear exactly how his research was performed. He also neglects to clarify why he did his search in LexisNexis in the first place and how he narrowed down his search. Occasionally Brabham gives an example of the context in which the keywords are used in certain articles, but the general framework of his research remains a bit vague. However, his in depth conclusions about the imaging of crowdsourcing are very well thought out. 

No more amateurs

The main point – that we should stop referring to people of crowdsourcing ventures as amateurs – seems to be valid. The difference between a professional and an amateur can not always be distinguished so easily. However, that conclusion is not as shocking as Brabham makes it out to be. It actually makes a lot of sense that people who are part of a crowdsourcing event have a certain kind of expertise. It would for instance be irregular for a historian to respond to a crowdsourcing project that asks people to design a new Ikea-closet. Presumably people with some kind of carpeting experience or architectural training would be the first to accept this challenge. So even though Brabham makes a valid point, he did not invent the wheel.

PubPeer

Crowdsourcing can be a great asset to science as well. This is proven by the website PubPeer that was founded in 2012 and is meant to serve as an alternative to the traditional scientific peer-review system. On this online platform scientists and ‘amateur’ scientists have the opportunity to give feedback on articles that are published in academic journals. According to the founders of the site the traditional way of critiquing a research article is slow and depends on the willingness of academics to look at each other’s work. Because of the flaws of this system, scientific research is vulnerable to mistakes and fraud. So, they reasoned, if more people can pitch in, the risks of those things happening are reduced. The life sciences receive the most comments from PubPeer users, because it is easier to spot a visable mistake within the hard sciences than it is with a humanities piece for example. But this sort of crowdsourcing idea could be very interesting to experiment with for historians. Especially because historical research is so often about exploring various explanations for historical events. So why not let people weigh in on the debates?

[1] Daren C. Brabham, “The Myth of Amateur Crowds: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Crowdsourcing Coverage” Information, Communication & Society Vol. 15, No. 3, April 2012, pp. 394–410.

206 thoughts to “Crowdsourcing: the pros, the cons and the possibilities”

  1. pleasant post and it is informative, all of us will be needing the article this way a lot more, trust you could potentially
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  2. I think this is a well-written blogpost, which clearly summarizes the main argument of the author and his method. However, it is a pity that the part of the opportunities of crowdsourcing for historians is a bit limited in this post. Could you find some examples of crowdsourcing projects focused on gathering historical knowledge, for instance?

  3. Nice blogpost. There are certain merits to crowdsourcing, but also the problem that the contributors are underpaid which you mention. You didn’t really state your opinion about that issue of underpayment, so I was wondering: what’s your view on it?

  4. ‘But where there is risk, there is opportunity. What could historians take from interacting with the public?’ Great introductory line, sparks my interest straight away!

    I also like this idea: ‘ Being an amateur does not automatically mean being incompetent’. I completely agree. A lot of the time so called ‘amateurs’ don’t get the same opportunities the people in the ‘dominant economic system’ get, which is not how it should be. Their work is just as valuable.

    Great that you also remark on the shortcomings of Brabham’s work (i.e. not making clear how his research was performed and neglecting to clarify himself on certain points). This is also not clear to me from your article, but that’s probably because Brabham remained vague. The bit about the CDA could be a bit more explanatory, but then again you’ve linked the website and also, this article is only supposed to be between 500-750 words- so I understand your decision on not going into depth on that topic.

    I agree with Maddie though- a few examples would illustrate your article a little better.

    Good to know about PubPeer, might be useful in the future.
    Great article Marlinde!

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