Anatomy of an investigation: a case study in crowdsourcing - The London Weekly

Paul Bradshaw, Andy BrightwellReader in Online Journalism, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)Publisher, Online Journalism BlogFounder, Help Me Investigate

Anatomy of an investigation: a case study in crowdsourcing

1. Conceptual context2. Crunching data, asking questions3. Findings

"Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"

Linus' Law, Eric Raymond

'Wisdom of crowds''Mechanical Turk'

2 strands of crowdsourcing

"Failure for free"

Clay Shirky (2009)

"Consumers will be more powerful within convergence culture - but only if they recognise and use that power"

Jenkins (2006)

The situation in which the product of previous work, rather than direct communication [induces and directs] additional labour

Reagle, in Lih (2009) p82

Stigmergy

Research

Quantitative: 2 surveys + user dataQualitative: semi-structured interviews

To create; inform, entertain; gain status; create connections; sense-making; informed, entertained

Bowman & Willis (2003)

"Weekly cue" "Sense of being involved in something together""Something you could do in your spare time very simply" 

Interviews

"Consumption as a networked practice"

Jenkins (2006)

Socio-psychological reward (social)Hedonic personal gratification (fun)

Benkler (2006)

5 ingredients

An alpha userMomentum - resultsBreak-down-ablePublicExpertise

Further research

Fire and water investigations

Wider network context

Measure inbound traffic

Paul BradshawHelpMeInvestigate.comOnlineJournalismBlog.comTwitter.com/paulbradshawpaul@helpmeinvestigate.comslideshare.net/onlinejournalist

Questions?