CROWDSOURCING

I loved the 2 TED talks and one website (of Aaron Koblin's work).

RECAPTCHA: I already knew that every time I type in two words to verify that I'm a human being I'm helping to digitize books because ONCE, only ONCE when I did it, Recaptcha (or perhaps the website I was on) told me what I was actually doing. Of course, one must wonder about copyright laws what with all this digitizing of books. And now I am complicit.... Hmmmmm. (Google doesn't just digitize books in the public domain.) I know what the ruling was, but still...
Google Defeats Authors in Book-scanning Case

I knew nothing of CAPTCHArt but shall be on the lookout to create my own now.

I have always been a big believer in "crowdsourcing" using Twitter as my "hive mind." Whenever I need some difficult fact-checking, I go on Twitter. I reciprocally follow/am followed by a bunch of nerdy educators, techies and Wikipedia-editor-types who answer my questions within minutes, sometimes hours (rarely 24 hours) and provide sources. I have learned incredible tech work-arounds through my online friends whom I have never met IRL. They also correct my blog when I get some information wrong, typos, etc., and they get some great conversations going about material I share.

One of my best online crowdsourcing experience was the following. I needed a voice-actor to be the voice of Fr. Alberione for the documentary I just finished. He had to an older gentleman with very clear English, but an authentic NORTHERN Italian accent. One of my online friends knew an 80-year-old Northern Italian priest who had worked for years in Uganda (so knew English very well)--and he only lived 30 minutes away from me. Crowdsourcing is amazing (like how much clearer we could hear the "Daisy" song when many voices combined together). If I had only asked a few friends, who would have known Fr. Angelo? It took spreading the word to many to get a very specific result.

Another experience I've had of crowdsourcing was raising money for the film. We used regular online pleas with a way to donate online (all internal to my congregation--we didn't use any Kickstarter-like crowdfunding services). But the second round of fundraising we used Indiegogo. They were extremely helpful in helping us craft a campaign based on statistics to increase visibility and yield. Also, by going through a third party, we reached MORE people we DIDN'T already know, and I think the ability to see their donations register in real time and change the $ total was huge. We also offered perks for the first time with great success. (The Sisters' homemade cookies was a hit.)

Technology gathered for the sake of stats--worked on by many and representing many--can also be incredibly beautiful and human: the flightplans over the USA.

I am totally going to use the Johnny Cash Project video for my presentations. I've seen other similar-looking animated videos like that, but there is something incredibly intense about it being the work of 250,000 people. You can FEEL the difference.

Also stealing:

"The 19th century was defined by the novel.

The 20th century was defined by the cinema.

The 21st century will be defined by the interface."