Building sustainability and informing policy: The MicroPasts programme of knowledge exchange
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Institute of Archaeology
Abstract
This Follow-on project will build on the successful results achieved by the original MicroPasts project ('Crowd- and Community-Fuelled Archaeological Research') and will take them forward via two linked programmes of knowledge exchange that will have a transformative and long-lasting impact on heritage policy and practice, as well as on MicroPasts developers and contributors. MicroPasts initially received funding under the AHRC call for Digital Transformations in Community Research Co-Production in the Arts and Humanities and, over its 18 month duration (1 October 2013-31 March 2015), the team have developed, implemented and started to evaluate a novel model to support collaborative research in archaeology, history and heritage that draws on a combination of crowd-sourcing, co-design and crowd-funding.
We now propose to undertake knowledge exchanges and further evaluation with two aims: (1) to study and enable a community-led model of platform and project management that is sustainable in the longer-term, and (2) to inform heritage policy and practice in the UK, and guide investments in participatory projects that use crowd-sourcing and/or crowd-funding. With those aims in mind, we plan to engage interested MicroPasts contributors in discussions about how they might take responsibility for the day-to-day running of the MicroPasts websites, and then develop the technical resources, guidelines and skills that are necessary for a community-led model of platform and project management to become fully operational. With policy-makers, analysts and practitioners in the heritage sector, we wish to review the methods and results of the evaluation conducted over the lifetime of MicroPasts so far, to steer further reflection and develop knowledge about the benefits generated by the use of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding, for individuals, communities and heritage, and about how best to capture these benefits.
We will respond to MicroPasts contributors' stated desire to take forward the work conducted until now and help maintain the digital resources created in the lifetime of MicroPasts, so that they can continue using and benefiting from them. In addition, the knowledge exchange programme with volunteers will offer both contributors and current core staff meaningful learning opportunities, which can also be important for employment and career development purposes. Beyond significantly strengthening the co-creative nature of MicroPasts, we expect that this model of community-led management could potentially provide an exemplar for the longer-term sustainability of other web-based participatory projects that use crowd-sourcing or crowd-funding. This knowledge exchange programme will produce tutorials and guidelines that will be made available open access for anyone to download and re-use.
Furthermore, knowledge exchange among heritage policy-makers and practitioners will bridge a substantial knowledge gap about the ways in which more participatory and digitally interactive cooperation with the public can support heritage organisations in re-designing and improving their services in the context of economic downturn. In addition, the project will help heritage institutions and funding bodies to face the numerous technical, ethical and methodological challenges of evaluating community- and crowd-fuelled projects. This strand of the knowledge exchange programme will be conducted via workshop discussions, followed by the write up of a summary paper and evaluation guidelines, together with a full report on the MicroPasts evaluation. These resources will be made available online, but also circulated directly amongst the extensive network of heritage professionals with whom the project staff and their proposed collaborators are in contact.
We now propose to undertake knowledge exchanges and further evaluation with two aims: (1) to study and enable a community-led model of platform and project management that is sustainable in the longer-term, and (2) to inform heritage policy and practice in the UK, and guide investments in participatory projects that use crowd-sourcing and/or crowd-funding. With those aims in mind, we plan to engage interested MicroPasts contributors in discussions about how they might take responsibility for the day-to-day running of the MicroPasts websites, and then develop the technical resources, guidelines and skills that are necessary for a community-led model of platform and project management to become fully operational. With policy-makers, analysts and practitioners in the heritage sector, we wish to review the methods and results of the evaluation conducted over the lifetime of MicroPasts so far, to steer further reflection and develop knowledge about the benefits generated by the use of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding, for individuals, communities and heritage, and about how best to capture these benefits.
We will respond to MicroPasts contributors' stated desire to take forward the work conducted until now and help maintain the digital resources created in the lifetime of MicroPasts, so that they can continue using and benefiting from them. In addition, the knowledge exchange programme with volunteers will offer both contributors and current core staff meaningful learning opportunities, which can also be important for employment and career development purposes. Beyond significantly strengthening the co-creative nature of MicroPasts, we expect that this model of community-led management could potentially provide an exemplar for the longer-term sustainability of other web-based participatory projects that use crowd-sourcing or crowd-funding. This knowledge exchange programme will produce tutorials and guidelines that will be made available open access for anyone to download and re-use.
Furthermore, knowledge exchange among heritage policy-makers and practitioners will bridge a substantial knowledge gap about the ways in which more participatory and digitally interactive cooperation with the public can support heritage organisations in re-designing and improving their services in the context of economic downturn. In addition, the project will help heritage institutions and funding bodies to face the numerous technical, ethical and methodological challenges of evaluating community- and crowd-fuelled projects. This strand of the knowledge exchange programme will be conducted via workshop discussions, followed by the write up of a summary paper and evaluation guidelines, together with a full report on the MicroPasts evaluation. These resources will be made available online, but also circulated directly amongst the extensive network of heritage professionals with whom the project staff and their proposed collaborators are in contact.
Planned Impact
The Follow-on project will have compelling outcomes and considerable impact at several different levels, on two main groups. The first point to stress is that MicroPasts volunteers will be participating in a knowledge exchange programme aimed at developing and implementing a community-led kind of platform and project management. The idea behind this programme emerged from discussions with regular volunteers and from their desire to take forward the work conducted until now and help maintain the digital resources created in the lifetime of MicroPasts, so that they can continue using and benefiting from them. In addition, the programme will facilitate the sharing of different skills and knowledge and, thus, offer to volunteers and other core staff meaningful learning opportunities, which will also be important for employment and career development purposes.
The second point to emphasise is the transformative impact of this initiative on heritage policy and practice. By the end of the Follow-on, key representatives from these two groups participating in the workshops will have co-produced new knowledge on the value of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding in the heritage sector, to the benefit of heritage and heritage institutions, individuals and communities, online or offline. While there has been initial thinking on these topics, there hasn't yet been a moment of focussed and collaborative discussion resulting in operational recommendations for the heritage sector. Workshop delegates will also reach conclusions on best practice for evaluating web-based heritage projects that leverage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding methods. The outcomes of the workshops will be key to understanding whether new policy and new guidance should be developed to address the specific needs of crowd-fuelled projects, and also to inform future grant-making decisions in these areas. In addition, our evaluation guidelines will be useful for grantees, since, for example, only very general suggestions are currently offered by HLF on the best ways to measure the results of their projects. For heritage practitioners, we expect the core value of the Follow-on to be that of obtaining clear advice on the most cost-effective solutions for including crowd-sourcing projects in their educational and curatorial programmes, and crowd-funding as part of their development strategies.
To communicate the project outcomes to national and international audiences of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in the cultural sector, we will write a paper summarising and commenting on the workshop discussions and publish it in a relevant journal such as Cultural Trends. In addition, the report on the evaluation of the MicroPasts project and the evaluation guidelines that will be produced will be made available for download from the MicroPasts main website and archived open access with UCL Discovery. We also, importantly, rely on the input of workshop participants and particularly of those mentioned in the Collaboration section, to disseminate the outcomes of this Follow-on widely, amongst their professional networks.
The second point to emphasise is the transformative impact of this initiative on heritage policy and practice. By the end of the Follow-on, key representatives from these two groups participating in the workshops will have co-produced new knowledge on the value of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding in the heritage sector, to the benefit of heritage and heritage institutions, individuals and communities, online or offline. While there has been initial thinking on these topics, there hasn't yet been a moment of focussed and collaborative discussion resulting in operational recommendations for the heritage sector. Workshop delegates will also reach conclusions on best practice for evaluating web-based heritage projects that leverage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding methods. The outcomes of the workshops will be key to understanding whether new policy and new guidance should be developed to address the specific needs of crowd-fuelled projects, and also to inform future grant-making decisions in these areas. In addition, our evaluation guidelines will be useful for grantees, since, for example, only very general suggestions are currently offered by HLF on the best ways to measure the results of their projects. For heritage practitioners, we expect the core value of the Follow-on to be that of obtaining clear advice on the most cost-effective solutions for including crowd-sourcing projects in their educational and curatorial programmes, and crowd-funding as part of their development strategies.
To communicate the project outcomes to national and international audiences of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in the cultural sector, we will write a paper summarising and commenting on the workshop discussions and publish it in a relevant journal such as Cultural Trends. In addition, the report on the evaluation of the MicroPasts project and the evaluation guidelines that will be produced will be made available for download from the MicroPasts main website and archived open access with UCL Discovery. We also, importantly, rely on the input of workshop participants and particularly of those mentioned in the Collaboration section, to disseminate the outcomes of this Follow-on widely, amongst their professional networks.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- The Heritage Alliance (Collaboration)
- Art Fund (Collaboration)
- British Museum (Collaboration)
- NESTA (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- National Trust (Collaboration)
- National Museum of the Royal Navy (Collaboration)
- Denver Museum of Nature and Science (Collaboration)
- SciFabric (Collaboration)
- Egyptian Museum of Turin (Collaboration)
- KING'S COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
Publications
Marta Krzyzanska;
(2018)
The Heritage of Brexit
Chiara Bonacchi
(2018)
Co-producing Knowledge Online
in AHRC Connected Community Review Series
Bonacchi, C.
(Submitted) Evaluating Participants and Participation in Heritage Crowdsourcing
in Cultural Trends, Submitted
Bonacchi C
(2019)
Participation in heritage crowdsourcing
in Museum Management and Curatorship
Bonacchi C
(2015)
Experiments in Crowd-funding Community Archaeology
in Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage
Bonacchi C
(2017)
Digital Co-production in Archaeology. An editorial
in Internet Archaeology
Description | We have found common ground about crowd-sourcing approaches with a range of major policy stakeholders in archaeology and heritage, and successfully transitioned to a sustainable crowd-sourcing venture with considerable volunteer input from members of the general public. |
Exploitation Route | With respect to the funding and oversight of crowd-sourcing initiatives in the humanities sector by national policy bodies. |
Sectors | Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | http://research.micropasts.org/2015/11/12/initial-reflections-on-the-micropasts-knowledge-exchange-workshop/ |
Description | The MicroPasts site is ongoing and continues to attract lots of contributors. We have also strongly diversified the range of participating institutions including new ones in Italy and the US. Our 3d models created via the MicroPasts site for the British Museum have been used in children's learning events and have been downloaded and 3d printed worldwide. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | Fitzwilliam Museum Citizen Science |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | The Fitzwilliam Museum |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Our research team provided the expertise to set up the citizen science project with the museum, provided a platform for dissemination of the project, post project analysis and data cleaning. |
Collaborator Contribution | A new citizen science partnership was started with the public engagement section of the Fitzwilliam Museum as a coproduction response to Covid 19 close down of the museum facilities. This project aimed to transcribe audio archives of podcasts. The museum provided access to the archive, a model of how they wanted data to be created and manipulated and a platform on which to publish the results, mention in the Vice-Chancellor's newsletter and social media coverage. |
Impact | This project resulted in: 50 participants transcribing audio data 50 podcast episodes and audio guide entries being made accessible for audiences A new section on the beta website for holding the audio guide content for the museum - https://beta.fitz.ms/objects-and-artworks/audio-guide R stats code specifically for the MicroPasts project to enable replication of the results Python scripts for splitting audio into segments Application code for the MicroPasts community (and pybossa) to reuse |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | British Museum |
Department | Digital and Publishing |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | SciFabric |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Heritage Crowdsourcing |
Organisation | University College London |
Department | Institute of Archaeology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Dr Chiara Bonacchi has been working with other members of the MicroPasts team (Daniel Pett, British Museum; Andy Bevan UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the crowdsourcing development company SciFabric on the creation of new crowdsourcing templates that will be used as part of the Ancient Identities Today project. MicroPasts is an AHRC-funded project that is still ongoing as a collaboration between the British Museum and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Dr Bonacchi enriched the MicroPasts crowdsourcing website with new kinds of heritage crowdsourcing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Daniel Pett, Andy Bevan and SciFabric supported Chiara Bonacchi in the technical development and review of the new heritage crowdsourcing templates. |
Impact | As a result of this collaboration a number of new templates for heritage crowdsourcing were developed. These templates will be used for the Ancient Identities Today project. However, they have also been shared and made available for download and re-use via the project GitHub account: https://github.com/IARHeritages. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | Art Fund |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | King's College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | National Museum of the Royal Navy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | National Trust |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | Nesta |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | The Heritage Alliance |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The team organised a knowledge exchange event to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. The workshop was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on 23 September 2016. |
Collaborator Contribution | Speakers from partner organisations participated in the workshops and provided their viewpoints and comments on the subjects that were addressed. |
Impact | Two back-to-back workshops (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) were organise to pursue the objectives listed below. 2. Workshop objectives Workshop 1 (Morning, 23 September 2015) Using crowd-based methods in a heritage 'ecology' 1. To guide organisational change in the heritage sector via crowd-based methods • What can crowd-based methods bring to organisations, groups, and individuals committed to heritage research, management and preservation? • What are the potential shortcomings of such methods and how should these be addressed? 2. To improve the longer-term sustainability of crowd-based initiatives • Who has the capacity to implement crowd-based online platforms and related offline initiatives at present? • To what extent can such efforts sustain themselves over the longer-term or contribute to the sustainability of heritage institutions? • If new funding policies are needed to support such activities, what should these look like and what synergies should be involved (e.g. between arts, heritage and higher education funding bodies)? 3. To create a UK-based interest group on the topic of crowd-based methods • How could or should the knowledge resulting from this workshop be disseminated more widely across the arts, heritage and higher education sectors? • What are the implications of the growth of crowd-based methods for heritage policy, for example in terms of funding or capacity building? Workshop 2 (Afternoon, 23 September 2015) Evaluating heritage crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding 1. To focus on what insights are useful for evaluation purposes 2. To identify key measures, useful descriptors and simple evaluation methods 3. To discuss any emerging ethical challenges related to evaluation practices, and how to address them |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Magic Mountain Catalogue Transcription |
Organisation | Denver Museum of Nature and Science |
Country | United States |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The MicroPasts team developed a crowdsourcing application for the transcription of the Magic Mountain catalogue, housed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to support PhD research. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Denver Museum of Nature and Science made available for crowdsourcing activities the Magic Mountain catalogue it owns. |
Impact | One crowdsourcing application for the transcription of the catalogue (so far). |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Partnership with Museo Egizio |
Organisation | Egyptian Museum of Turin |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | We have been crowdsourcing the 3D photo-masking and modelling of objects housed at the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Museum helped to make MicroPasts known in Italy, through nation-wide publicity via articles in major Italian newspapers such as La Repubblica and La Stampa. |
Impact | 3D models, shared via the 3D modelling platform Sketchfab; blog posts; engagement of members of the public living in Italy (further internationalisation of the research and crowdsourcing activity); formal inclusion of a 'public archaeology' and open data agenda in the policy of Museo Egizio. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Title | Crowdsourcing application, your city, your place |
Description | Crowdsourcing application to explore values associated with urban heritage |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | capturing public values of heritage |
Title | Crowdsourcing applications for photo-tagging and transcribing the Scottish Political Archive |
Description | Crowdsourcing applications for photo-tagging and transcribing the Scottish Political Archive on the MicroPasts website. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Engagement of members of the public with the digitisation of leaflets and photographs the are part of the of the Scottish Political Archive. |
Description | 'After the crowds disperse: Crowdsourced data rediscovered and researched' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An AHRC funded Towards a National Collection Foundation project workshop focused on Citizen Science and insights drawn from projects engaged in this field. Pett and Bonnachi presented on the work of the MicroPasts project to an audience of professional colleagues and then answered questions for the organisers. This was intended as a knowledge transfer activity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/after-the-crowds-disperse-crowdsourced-data-rediscovered-and-re... |
Description | 'Archeologia e comunicazione' (Archaeology and Communication). Keynote given by Dr Chiara Bonacchi for the Workshop 'Archeologia e comunita': una stratigrafia di relezioni' (Archaeology and communities: a statigraphy of relations', given on 19/12/17 at IULM University, Milan, Italy. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A lecture where both MicroPasts and the Ancient Identities Today projects featured prominently. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | 12-16/09/18 talk: 'Crowdsourcing Arts and Heritage', for the 5th International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation and Digitisation (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 12-16/09/18'Crowdsourcing Arts and Heritage', for the 5th International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation and Digitisation (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | 12/02/19 talk: Cultural Citizenship and participation in heritage crowdsourcing', Centre for the Environment, Heritage and Policy, University of Stirling (Stirling, UK). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 12/02/19 Cultural Citizenship and participation in heritage crowdsourcing', Centre for the Environment, Heritage and Policy, University of Stirling (Stirling, UK). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | 2017, 'Digital Heritage 'Big' Data Hacking and Visualisation', International Workshop organised at the UCL Institute of Archaeology by Dr Chiara Bonacchi and Dan Pett (British Museum, UK). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop will discuss expressive uses of 'big data' visualisations to engage citizens with the results of research into the human past and its contemporary legacies. It will bring together perspectives coming from the creative arts, design, software development, cultural heritage and museum studies. Speakers and discussants will reflect over the principles that could and should be driving the development of digital applications for the public interpretation and communication of heritage research that is based on the analysis of relatively large, varied and rapidly changing quantities of data extracted from web infrastructures. The workshop is linked to the Ancient Identities Today project, which is experimenting with approaches that combine the use of 'smaller' and 'bigger' data online and offline, to study and communicate the meanings and uses of ideas and materials from the Iron Age, Roman and Early Medieval pasts in contemporary Britain. Organisers: Chiara Bonacchi (UCL Institute of Archaeology) and Daniel Pett (British Museum) The event is funded by the UCL Global Engagement Fund, with additional sponsorship from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, and the UCL Institute of Archaeology Heritage Studies Section. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://ancientidentities.org/digital-heritage-workshop/ |
Description | 2022, 'Open science' in archaeology and heritage: challenges and future perspectives, session for the 28th EAA Conference, 31 August-3 September, Budapest, co-organised with Alessio Palmisano (University of Turin) and Marija Edinborough (University of Melbourne). |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Advanced knowledge of 'Open science' in archaeology and heritage: challenges and future perspectives, through a session held at the 28th EAA Conference, 31 August-3 September, Budapest, co-organised with Alessio Palmisano (University of Turin) and Marija Edinborough (University of Melbourne). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | 28/04/2022 Citizen science in heritage: from memory institutions to urban heritage planning and conservation, invited talk for the conference Enriching dialogues of Citizen Science, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | About 40 academics and practitioners in heritage attended the talk. Some of them reported changes in knowledge and understanding about the subject and expressed the desire to explore further collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Dr Chiara Bonacchi participated in the expert workshop organized by the AHRC, Heritage Futures, the Alan Turing Institute and the British Library on 'Heritage Data', British Library, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Participation on the potential of big data for research in the GLAM sector. A number of points relating to crowdsourcing and social media data mining were raised and informed the conversation and report - these points derived from research undertaken as part of the MicroPasts and Ancient Identities Today projects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Two back-to-back workshops were organised to share the practices, shortcomings and achievements experienced by the MicroPasts project and use these as fodder for wider discussion about the use and evaluation of both crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding within a broader heritage 'ecology'. About 30 delegated participated amongst heritage policy-makers, funders and practitioners. The day allowed producing a more focussed view of the value of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding for the heritage sector - attendees brought back the discussion into their daily activities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHoSalhpL825RuHkQh2tbjg |
Description | Lecture on Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding in Archaeology, given on 19 Feb 2018 at the UCL Institute of Archaeology by CB |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Lecture on Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding in Archaeology, delivered using MicroPasts as a case study. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Lecture on Heritage Crowdsourcing delivered as part of the PG course on Archaeological Data Science, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, in December 2018. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The class introduced heritage crowdsourcing from both a theoretical and a practical point of view, using the MicroPasts case study as a platform. About 10 PG students participated and required further information about the topic presented. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | London Museums Group - Agile |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An online panel discussion moderated by the director of the Cartoon Museum, with Daniel Pett from the Fitzwilliam Museum and the director of the Shuttleworth Collection (Bedfordshire) discussing the impacts of Covid19 on working practise in museums - focus points were on digital and the methods that this could implement/learn from. Over 90 people attended with robust questioning following the panel discussion. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://youtu.be/mbbwfbRq0sc |
Description | Michigan State University: Institute of Digital Archaeology Method and Practice |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Co-Investigator Daniel Pett participated for 2 years in the MSUDAI workshops funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. These two years of workshops, talks and practical activities culminated in participants using the MicroPasts platform to deploy their own crowdsourcing projects (institutions included Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Minnesota Historical Society) and gain benefits from international co-operation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016 |
URL | http://digitalarchaeology.msu.edu/final-thoughts-on-msudai-crowdsourcing-and-the-world-of-digital-ar... |
Description | Public talk for RESCUE-The British Archaeological Trust's |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk: 'Co-producing knowledge and collections online',; public talk for RESCUE-The British Archaeological Trust's AGM and Public Lecture/Panel Discussion on Digging into the future of digitisation: what does this mean for archaeology? |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Pushkin Museum, Moscow Digital Round Table |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An online (Zoom) international round table was organised as part of the Pushkin Museum's "Inter-Museum" Digital Technologies conference that was simulcast in Russian and English. This roundtable had presentations from each of 4 delegates talking about their research foci, the Fitzwilliam contribution was on 3D technologies, citizen science and linked data. The roundtable moved on to discuss between panelists and then was opened to the international audience . This conference was meant to be a physical, in person event, but due to Covid 19 went online completely with over 500 delegates registered. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://imuseum.ru/en/ |
Description | Talk given on 22/06/2017 by Dr Chiara Bonacchi, for the workshop 'Digital and Analogue tools in heritage management - Contemporary and future perspectives', Newcastle University, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on crowdsourcing in heritage - raised awareness of the processes and methods that support this activity. About 30 participants gained awareness of this. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Talk on participation in heritage crowdsourcing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk on participation in heritage crowdsourcing for the workshop: 'After the crowds disperse: crowdsourced data rediscovered and researched'. This workshop was a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, The National Archives, Royal Museums Greenwich and Zooniverse. The workshop formed part of the AHRC-funded Engaging Crowds project that sits within the AHRC programme: Towards a National Collection: Opening UK Heritage to the World. Specifically the event wanted to identify and address the significant hurdles to overcome in order to achieve seamless movement of data between institutional collection management systems (CMS) and crowdsourcing platforms and back again. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | VR Event, British Museum (August 2015) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The 3D models of archaeological artefacts that we had crowd-sourced were used in a VR walk-through of a Bronze Age roundhouse at the British Musuem |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2015/08/10/virtual-reality-how-the-samsung-digital-discovery-centre-cr... |
Description | Volunteer training |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The MicroPasts team has been training about 12 volunteers in a number of different technical activities, ranging from the creation of 3D models and Wikipedia entries, to website, blog and community forum management. This has generated substantial skill-uilding leading not only on greater and longer-term self-sustainability of the MicroPasts website but also to new career pathways for some of the volunteers involved. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016 |
Description | • 2018, 'The pop-up museum', Exhibition session at Mozilla Festival (Mozfest), London. Co-organised with Dan Pett (Fitzwilliam Museum), Jennifer Wexler (British Museum), |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | • 2018, 'The pop-up museum', Exhibition session at Mozilla Festival (Mozfest), London. Co-organised with Dan Pett (Fitzwilliam Museum), Jennifer Wexler (British Museum), |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | • 2018, Social Heritages: Addressing Global Challenges in Contemporary Society. Culture and Heritage Session, delivered for Research Week, at University of Stirling, UK. Highlighting innovative research directions for the field. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | 2018, Social Heritages: Addressing Global Challenges in Contemporary Society. Culture and Heritage Session, delivered for Research Week, at University of Stirling, UK. Highlighting innovative research directions for the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |