Okay readers - the guest posting continues. I'm your host Digidave while Jeff Howe is out of town.
Earlier today I asked if there were tools people use to crowdsource their research? Thinking through the course of the day - I came up with three tools to crowdsource your research, but I'm sure there are others (Wikipedia doesn't count, that's too obvious).
1. Twitter
Yes, the micro-blogging service. It's more than just a way to bore your friends with updates on your random whereabouts and meals. It is a great tool to do research. Beth Kanter put it best in this post, which I'm happy to say was inspired by a comment I left.
"Can I get the answer faster from Google or Twitter? What's the atomic number for Radium? So, I put the question out to Twitter network and then before I could google it, Jim Thompson answered. And so did 5 people in my network, plus one person gave me a source page. It was slightly faster and more direct than googling it - but google was quick."
I often find that for trivial pursuit-esque questions, if you have a wide enough network, Twitter can provide fantastic results. This isn't any different from using the audience as a lifeline in "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" - except you don't need Regis. With Twitter, you can ask the audience all you want.
As a journalist I often use Twitter to do research on a subject. Or, if I'm in a panic to help me think of questions to ask an interviewee. That's what I did when I only had 30 minutes to prep before a phone call with Craig Newmark, someone I greatly admire (ie: my brain was going blank).
2. Mechanical Turk.
Should need no explanation. But just to give an anecdote - I believe Jeff Howe (the real author of Crowdsourcing.com) uses Mechanical Turk to crowdsource transcription. I'm personally thinking about hiring somebody to do all my typing. How much do you think that would cost? Perhaps it's a stretch to call transcription "research" but it is certainly part of any academic endeavor and part of the daily routine for lots of jobs. In terms of "research" classically understood (browsing through books), Mechanical Turk could work - but I wouldn't recommend it. Those are tasks that require a certain level of mental engagement that you can't ensure through MT. But it's totally possible to find the perfect Turker for your research and I'm sure it's used all the time.
3. Mahalo - the human powered search company started by Jason Calacanis. It takes seconds to create a search request on Mahalo. And believe it or not - the staff are happy to do the digging on the internet to help find you answers. Hat tip to Tony Hung for tipping me off to this one. He writes...
[On Twitter] if you send a suggestion to @MahaloToDo, they’ll create a page in a couple days.
Out of fun, I decided to suggested a fairly obscure topic: Capgras Syndrome, to see how they’d do with it. Here’s the actual page, as they got it done yesterday, which is pretty sparse, but to be fair, its a pretty sparse topic.
I can also vouch for this. A friend asked if I knew how to research the history of some obscure legal precedent (so obscure I can't even remember what it was). So, I contacted somebody at Mahalo and two days later - I had more research on it than I really thought was possible.
Then of course there are the specific work needs. If you don't want "research" but you need design, coders, pictures, etc. there are a TON of sites with verticals. I don't know of any that have a "research" vertical, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's on the horizon (or if the college kids just keep that one under their hats).
To learn more about the vertical crowdsourcing sites - I'd start with Read Write Web's Guide to the Crowdsourced Workforce.
Any other ideas? Leave a comment!!!
To crowdsource research you need:
1.) Good network
2.) Know what you don't know and formulate into the right question
3.) Quick synthesis and information literacy skills
4.) The right tool
Posted by: Beth Kanter | July 10, 2008 at 07:21 PM
Don't forget FriendFeed - very handy in the Open Science community right now.
For transcriptions try Castingwords - they use the Mechanical Turk I think. The rate depends on turn-around time requested.
Posted by: Jean-Claude Bradley | July 16, 2008 at 07:55 AM