From crowdsourcing to digitally-enabled participation: the state of the art in collaboration, access, and inclusion for cultural heritage institutions

Crowdsourcing has helped to provide a framework for online participation with, and around, cultural heritage collections for several years. As more cultural institutions ask members of the public to undertake tasks such as transcription, classification and description of digitised collections, expectations about the ability of these tasks to engage audiences more deeply with cultural heritage are rising. Co-creation and developing new models of ownership and authorship present significant challenges for institutions used to framing interactions with collections on their own terms. As crowdsourcing moves from an experimental activity to something that requires closer and more systematic integration with physical and other online outreach activities, institutions are grappling with the associated challenges to their organisational practices. This project brings together practitioners and researchers representing a range of approaches to digitally-enabled participation in cultural heritage to write a book in a week through a 'book sprint'. In the spirit of digitally-enabled participation, the book will not be considered 'final' until it has been through a period of public comment. The book will be freely available as an open access publication. The project will also assemble leaders in the field for a workshop that captures expert views on the most pressing issues to address through future funding calls, with the results published in a white paper written by the PI and Co-Is. This project builds on the expertise of three innovators in the field, each at a world-leading institution, who are setting the standards for crowdsourcing and digitally-enabled participation around cultural heritage collections in the UK and US. We have invited a range of expert practitioners and researchers from different fields to participate in our events and publications, enhancing our ability to address challenges from working with marginalised and disenfranchised communities to enhancing access across multiple channels and challenging organisational practice. In collecting, digesting and sharing best practice in crowdsourcing and digitally-enabled participation, this project will help maximise the value of existing platforms and activities. The support network created through participation in the book sprint, workshop and online discussion will help organisations stay audience-focused as they respond to technical and cultural changes in the field. This project primarily addresses the 'digitally-enabled participation' theme of this call, but it also touches on Machine Learning and AI and the automatic creation of data based on collections. The focus of the cross-cutting theme 'Contemporary challenges addressed by digital tools and methods' on ethical frameworks to address inequalities in digital engagement, sustaining relationships and developing activities with marginalised groups and cooperative working models are particularly important for this project. Questions of building digital capacity and supporting leaders of digital transformation from the 'Leadership and skills development in digital scholarship' theme are also crucial to the long-term viability of this field.