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What is Crowdsourcing?

By Maureen A. Taylor

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Crowdsourcing has been in the news lately relating to photo identification. According to Wikipedia, the term refers to the outsourcing of tasks to a community.

The Library of Congress (LOC) is using the historical, photographic and genealogical community to help identify their photo mysteries. In its Flickr collection is a set called “Mystery Photos Solved.” On Dec. 24, 2009, the LOC posted this set and asked for help identifying the images.

Within days, they had the answers. Each identification was confirmed through the use of other images and maps. It’s a fantastic use of the web-based community.

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Here’s one of them. It’s a staircase in a Paris Opera House taken between 1890-1900. You’ll notice that the image is color and looks like a photograph. In actuality, it’s an “ink-based photolithograph.”

You can view the entire LOC collection of these lovely images on Flickr. You’ll be able to travel without leaving your computer screen. <smile>

The LOC is also using crowdsourcing to try to identify the faces in their Civil War collection.

This technique is being used to predict weather, identify new planets and save old languages. The techie community is calling this trend outdated, but I love the way folks work together to solve these picture riddles.


Solve your family photo mysteries with these books by Maureen A. Taylor:

  • Preserving Your Family Photographs
  • Fashionable Folks: Hairstyles 1840-1900
  • Finding the Civil War in Your Family Album
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