Crowd Sourcing is Crowd Services

Topics in history can be infinite, every grain of sand can have a history of its own, and its values are only appreciated by those who are directly connected to it.  History is appreciated when it's passed and gone.  The scarcity of the accessibility through time is what gives history its value.  If historical records become abundant, their values will be equivalent to another grain of sand among the desert.

Preserving history in digital format is not necessarily about preserving history, but it has more to do with providing accessibility to historical records.  This accessibility will always need to continuously adjust to whatever medium and language that is appropriate at that specific time.  If people can read Old-English and paper is cheap and affordable, then this accessibility will come in the form of writing using Old-English printed on paper.  History itself, by nature, is never-ending changes, so it should not be a surprise that the medium that provides accessibility to history will naturally be in need of constant updates.

One of the most magical results of crowd-sourcing is the abundance of fresh data contributed.  In theory, crowd-sourcing is a great way to tap into the mass population for contribution; however, the crowd tends to contribute to the areas that immediately effect them or areas that they care for.  It is a two-way relationship; the crowd will contribute the data for a certain boost in value and conveniences to their lives in return.  For instance, people will be more than happy to contribute data that enrich Google Maps, which in return, they will get more accurate data and insights on businesses and points of interests that they are about to visit.

To successfully tap into the crowd is to provide valuable services to the crowd in return.  While it is sad to see projects like "My History is America’s History" fail, the question should be: What practical values does it give to its visitors and contributors?  It has to be something practical and impactful at a personal level, not just some vague ideologies.  What if your story is America's history, does it help get you a roof and feed your family?  If not, why should you invest your labor and time stripping your privacy nude on some website for people to molest and study on some website?  Another fact to consider is that not every story is B.B. King's story (Cohen & Rosenzweig, 2005).  People poured their labor to contribute to this "My History is America's History" website, in the end, all it proved was that contributors bear the burden to keep the story of B.B. King, one of the only few stories that actually matter on this website, alive.  Deep down, it is another website that is powered by the exploitation of contributors' pride.  Historians often exploit peoples' pride such as "discovering" one's root in return for data; that is the same as asking people to strip naked for other people to study for the sake of genealogical pride. Students may put up with unnecessary information, impractical and counter-intuitive methods to trade for a grade, but on the streets data mining is pound for pound.

Exploitation will eventually come to a collapse or backfire.  Sustainable crowd-sourcing requires practical and impactful services in return.  Crowd services is the real reason why some crowd-sourcing projects work while many other fail.

Reference:

Cohen, D. & Rosenzweig, R. (2005). Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.