Every Feather and Song: Crowdsourcing and Co-curation from a Natural History Perspective

transcript

Every Feather and Song

Sander PieterseNaturalis Biodiversity Center //

Xeno-canto Foundation for Nature Sounds

@zzherc

Digibird symposium“Two birds, one stone”

October 31, 2016Netherlands Institute

for Sound & VisionHilversum, The Netherlands

Crowdsourcing andco-curation froma natural historyperspective

Naturalis Biodiversity Center= (collection × research) + museum

40 million specimens

Also, T. rex.

● ‘Cognitive surplus’: to build a big collection together

● Networking: finding and binding amateurs and professionals

● Enrichment: gather object types not part of own (Naturalis) collection

Why do we crowdsource?

National thesaurus of multicellular species observed in The Netherlands since 1758www.nederlandsesoorten.nl

Dutch Species Catalog

Dutch species: illustrate ‘em allphotographers validators

photo editor (admin)

publication

Transcription of specimen labels

Whale & dolphin strandings

Xeno-canto Found for Nature Sounds

● Popularise bird sounds & recording

● Improve access to bird sounds

● Increase the knowledge of bird sounds

● Build the ultimate, complete sound guide

● Through www.xeno-canto.org

Xeno-canto collection in numbers

● 328,632 recordings

● 9,662 species(> 90% of all species)

● 3,309 recordists● 4728+ hours of

recordings

What to do when crowdsourcing?

Provide a shared goale.g. illustrating inter- and intraspecific diversity

Create a sense of connectedness

Make the shared goal social e.g. by

● acknowledging users● stand amongst your users● meetings between users● co-curating content● solving puzzles together

Connectedness: helping research(ers)

● Customization● Create feedback loops● Provide (new) insights● Personal progression

Allow for autonomy and mastery

Always

● provide shared goal (a purpose)● create a sense of connectedness● allow for autonomy and mastery

Also, be aware that

● content issues will arise● expertise can be a bottleneck, too