Operational mechanism of digital humanistic crowdsourcing project based on actor network theory

Abstract

This article is to promote the development of digital humanity-related crowdsourcing projects based on actor network theory (ANT). A case study on “Shengxuanhuai Documents” from Shanghai Library is selected as our research object. The article employs qualitative research approach to investigate core concepts, namely Problematization, Obligatory Passage Point, Interestment, and Mobilisation involved in the underway of the digital humanity-related crowdsourcing project. This study conducts interviews with 32 respondents, including the 10 contractees and 22 users. The crowdsourcing actors in humanity-related projects are mainly the organizers from public libraries, museums, archives, and other digital humanity institutions. Based on the project development documents and semi-structured interview data, we find that the main obstacles to prevent actors engaging in crowdsourcing projects include task guidance, user motivations, platform designs, and competition evaluations. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of ANT’s concepts and explores the contribution of each ANT analytical concept.