Dear area knowledge
workers,
Starting this month, the digital scholarship groups at Boston University and Boston College are co-hosting a monthly
informal gathering for people wishing to contribute to crowdsourced
projects. We invite you to join us, once or a few times or regularly,
from wherever you like. We're calling this Crowd Cafe.
We will provide in-person and online hosting, camaraderie, and light
direction help as needed. You, we hope, will provide human power for
projects of your choosing.
What crowdsourced
projects?
Any projects you like. Wikipedia editing, historical document
transcription, annotation of satellite images to aid in disaster relief
efforts. We've made a list of projects seeking help — there are many —
and are adding to it; see link below.
Who can participate?
Anyone with a reasonably recent laptop or desktop computer (tablets and
phones tend to be pretty painful to use for these projects), an internet
connection, and some time. Barriers to entry vary, but are generally
pretty low. We'll help you get started if you like.
Often, no specialized expertise is required; there are projects to which
middle and high schoolers could meaningfully contribute. Other projects
benefit from more experience, whether it be the ability to read 19th
century American handwriting and decipher common abbreviations, or
expertise in a field of research relevant to a Wikipedia article.
This means that, even if this isn't your thing, please help us spread the word by telling your
friends, colleagues, and students about it.
When is this
happening, and how do I join?
Crowd Cafe will take place on the third
Friday of every month, 1-3pm US Eastern time. Our first
gathering will be on Friday, August
17th.
You may join us:
- in person — current hosts include BU and BC;
- via a Zoom meeting;
- on Twitter via the #crowdcafe hashtag
More information, including rationale, locations, and a list of
crowdsourced projects, is at https://is.gd/crowdcafe.
We hope to see you there!
-Sarah Melton (BC) and Vika Zafrin (BU)
(This announcement is being sent to multiple lists.)
--
Dr. Vika Zafrin
Digital Scholarship Librarian
Boston University
+1 617.358.6370 | bu.edu/disc
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