Public Scholarship

Abstract

This chapter explores how MAPP and the Digital Humanities more broadly engages the general public, focusing on the role of crowdsourcing in the humanities as a major aspect of twenty-first-century cultural and academic engagement. The chapter discusses key developments in crowdsourcing models involving the distinction between the language of the ‘crowd’ versus the ‘community’ and outlines how public engagement and contribution from key ‘knowledge communities’ is helping to create our digital archive, MAPP. We also address issues around Open Access, sustainability and preservation, the creative commons license we are using, and the pressing issues for a project like MAPP around copyright. The chapter offers some important reflections on the practicalities and possibilities–socially, culturally and legally–involved in building and co-creating a digital resource.