Facing Budget Woes, Prominent Crowdsourcing Project Will Scale Back

March 11, 2011, 2:17 pm

Even crowdsourcing can cost money. That reality is forcing scholars to scale back a groundbreaking project that relies on volunteers to transcribe the unpublished manuscripts of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

University College London’s Transcribe Bentham project gained widespread attention as a potentially powerful new way to speed up scholarly work. But the project still required money to pay for computer programming, photography, and research associates who vet the quality of volunteers’ submissions. Now its government grant is coming to an end, meaning the associates will have to be laid off unless more money can be found.

“I don’t envisage Transcribe Bentham ever disappearing from the Web,” says Philip Schofield, the project’s director. “It’s the backup we can give it which is in danger of disappearing toward the end of the year—that active involvement and relationship with users which the research staff has built up.”

As of this week, participants had started more than 1,200 transcriptions, and about 600 had been accepted for posting online. Those volunteers can now expect longer waits for responses to their submissions. The project’s team, meanwhile, will work on writing scholarly papers about the experience.

Mr. Schofield calls the effort a success, but he acknowledges several challenges. One difficulty is the source material. It can be tough going deciphering the complicated quill-inked jottings of a philosopher who died in the 19th century. Most transcribers ended up working on one or two and then disappearing.

One way to overcome that problem might be to use the crowdsourcing model in an entity like a museum, Mr. Schofield suggests, which would already have an established community interested in its work. “We’ve had to make ours from scratch,” he says.

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Janeita

This is a very good article that our team caught a few days ago and uploaded it to our website at: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/facing-budget-woes-prominent-crowdsourcing-project-will-scale-back/2923. I believe that crowdsourcing is oftentimes misrepresented and if there are no reigns on the project or careful planning then you may just have to put an ending chapter to it. We really hope that the “Transcribe Bentham project” does not come to an end due to lack of funds. Honestly, I also think that if it comes to this that the project team should exlpore the possibilities of crowdfunding this project. There are numerous crowdfunding platforms where a project like this would take off. I would suggest going to Rockethub or Indiegogo with it. For more crowdfunding websites you may check our database at: http://www.crowdsourcing.org. Best of luck!
goxewu

Race-based affirmative action is essentially indefensible.

It’s probably unconstitutional, and has survived in the Supreme Court only because of a lot if’s, and’s, but’s, and some tortured reasoning about being legit if it’s only one factor among many, etc., etc.

If the argument is that blacks and Latinos constitute a long-standing disproportionate segment of the economic underclasses, then class- and economics-based affirmative action would benefit blacks and Latinos disproportionately.

The weakness of the black-and-Latino-automatically-equals-deprived argument (e.g., an upper-middle-class black kid gets extra points toward admission simply because he or she is black, while a dirt-poor white kid from Appalachia doesn’t, simply because he or she is white), has driven AA proponents to the fallback position of “diversity” (i.e., AA isn’t reparations or breaks for kids struggling in bad circumstances, but rather the racial tailoring of a student body into a mix where everybody can learn from everybody who’s different from them). The trouble with that argument is that it’s a matter of taste: How much of each race makes a favorable diversity? What if a student body is admitting too many Asians–does the percentage of that minority have to be cut back?

AA might have benefited women, but the worm has turned. A couple of years ago the director of admissions (a woman) of an SLAC (Kenyon College in Ohio, I think) admitted that the school had to practice a bit of AA for male applicants in order to prevent the sex ratio in the student body from being 60-40 female, and trying to get it back closer to 50-50. There was a kerfuffle over that because males weren’t a “historically disadvantaged” class. True, males weren’t eligible for reparations, but according to the “diversity” reasoning (“a student body that looks like America”), male applicants, including white males, do need a leg up.

Katisumas’s ancillary arguments about the kinds of repellent people who opposed everything from the GI Bill to race-based affirmative action in the past are irrelevant. And katisumas’s “Instead of attacking this model, transform it to cover economic
classes. Present day affirmative action policies are your friend, not your enemy. They don’t close the door to affirmative action based on class, they open it,” is pure eyewash.

“Transforming” race-based affirmative action to cover economic classes necessitates “attacking” race-based AA. Race-based AA is certainly not the “friend” of economic-classed-based AA because it stands in the way of it. (Unless you’re going to have two tracks, and applicants can decide whether they want to be cut a break on account of race or class; if an applicant can double up the breaks, then you’re right back, bottom line, to race-based AA).
animaarbor

I wasn’t arguing against affirmative action based on race; I said, socioeconomic factors need to be considered IN ADDITION TO other factors like race and gender. That isn’t the same thing as declaring affirmative action “my enemy.” Affirmative action as it stands is inadequate.
RedSucker

Katie you are very perceptive: Not a patsy, but you are very correct I was jerked by a system, though it was very easy to understand: I could not get into MN Vet school because there were gender and race preferencs/quotas in the early 80′s ….pretty cool being a white male (I know you could tell!) How do you think that made me feel that I needed straight 4.0 plus other honors, in all pre grad science subjects, while the preferred less competitive groups needed a 3.3 ….So 30 years hence I am a music professor who was taught by that very system, that preferred groups are less qualified, and would have very much benefitted from no “affirmative” anything, and think of the substandard work done by substandard preferences…since you cannot see what did not happen…very hard to prove. And all those cool hippie marches in the 70′s by proponents of all the progressive ideas…No not a patsy, and it was/is all very easy to understand.
11144703

A Chronicle report line today (13 Sept. 2011):

“The Center for Equal Opportunity, which had just released a report alleging severe discrimination against white undergraduate and law-school applicants at the University of Wisconsin”

I’m extremely disappointed by the Chronicle which is usually evenhanded. The report indicates bias against ASIANS and whites. Asians are PEOPLE OF COLOR, mentioned 95 times in the first report (versus the word white [for the white people] mentioned 109 times).

Why is the Chronicle engaged in erasing Asians as the Left has been doing for decades now since Asians are embarrassingly fabulously successful (49% BAs for Asian Americans versus 29% BAs for the white people) in academe, destroying the notion that such tests are racist against people of color and privilege the white people?
copesan

Perhaps we academics develop an authoritative and intimidating style not only to shore up our own necessary confidence about putting forth an argument, but to try to head off the critics, since most of us have witnessed really mean and rude responses. Does it become a vicious downward cycle, the meanness encouraging an arrogance of style, which encourages meanness in response?

We are living in a mean time, surely; however, the academy is also not exactly a place of gracious manners, whether its not acknowledging job applications, not informing applicants that the job has been filled, not saying hello or being generally friendly and civil around the halls of a department, treating graduate students, staff and junior colleagues like servants or even serfs.
So, people, I am, to use V8573254′s phrase, a smiley-face advocate. Let there be a more cordial, civil, peaceful world, and let it begin with me and with each of us. Refuse to become part of the meanness and the incivility.
greymonkey

My first year of graduate school, the faculty member who eventually became my advisor (and has been known to dish out some pretty heavy-handed critique) told us that we were only allowed to say one negative thing for every two positive things we said about a text. It was a useful exercise in learning the value of the texts that pave the way for the state of my field (and pretty damned hard to do).
janeer1

Important observations, MB. When I’ve seen a student or young academic meanly and unfairly treated by a discussant in a public forum, I always go up to them afterward to say something I thought they did well, or (if true) that I liked their paper. Just talking to them can help reduce the feeling, and sometimes reality, of being shunned. I’ve seen very senior scholars do this, and I sometimes felt that they actually did not get what the target of their critique was doing–i.e., they were so locked into their own view and often tired approach to the field that they were utterly blind to see what was creative or good about the work they lambasted. BTW, I usually say something to mean person as well. Sometimes people need to be called out.
goxewu

Gosh, nobody commenting here is *in favor* of “meanness”? Is there anybody here who’s against home, mother and apple pie?

Does Prof. Gasman think that academe harbors more “meanness” than, oh, say, Wall Street, the factory floor, construction crews, bridge clubs, churches’ boards of elders, Congress, small-town politics, or Little League teams?

And there’s not even one concrete names-removed-to-protect-the-innocent example in Prof. Gasman’s post.

Then again, this could be the start of a whole series of posts: “Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about [laziness, tardiness, messiness--or any similarly cloudy topic] and how it manifests itself within academe.”

(Ooops. This is a mean comment, isn’t it.)
dank48

I have to agree, just as an observer, mind.

Education is pretty good at dealing with ignorance, assuming the student is willing to learn, but it doesn’t really seem to do much for deep-seated personality defects, any more than it can cure stupidity.
wagamama

Your reply assumes that bullying is by definition physical. I beg to disagree (and I have been the target of both kinds).
criticalbite

“No worse than”— doesn’t seem to be much of a defense, goxewu. If Congress is the standard, God help us……
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RSRD4KFLLVQHEM4QYHLLFBQR6M chaz

I’ve been on the receiving end of vitriolic, unproductive comments, and it doesn’t feel good. Fellow academics, lets try harder to follow the golden rule: don’t be a dick.
snowtech

Cultural resocialization in the academy begins with accepting things exactly as they are and exactly as they are not. Maslow framed the organizational challenge piercingly: “We do what we are and we are what we do.”
bradjing

The latest version of such mean-spirited academic exchanges has found a home in some of these very blogs. I often cringe at the name calling and vitriolic tone. The comments can sound more like reprisals than responses. But if we as academics limited our bile to blogging and kept it out of the conference room (or hallway!) then maybe that’s an improvement. But a sad one.
mbelvadi

Not necessarily, but shouldn’t the bar for verbal bullying be a bit higher than a condescending tone? Where does the line cross between someone just being rude and a jerk, and them engaging in verbal bullying? I would reverse your original comment, and suggest that verbal bullying is an extreme subset of the kind of mean-ness that Marybeth describes, rather than considering all of her examples of nastiness to be a subset of bullying.
laudrich

Forget about Mr. Vedder’s motivations. The motivation for what he suggests is that the federal and state governments (and, quite frankly, the public) are no longer going to pay for the higher education of the huge number of additional students they want to earn degrees at the same cost they have been paying. Something has to give. And, forget about full-time faculty being a “frill” or not; the fact is they are expensive. The alternatives that Mr. Vedder identifies are real and will increasingly dominate the higher education of the masses, irrespective of the type of learning they entail and what anyone thinks of it. And, finally, forget that a consequence of this will be a further bifurcation of higher education into the elite institutions, where traditional small-class and mentored face-to-face learning happens and only the very wealthy can afford to attend, and the rest. This is unavoidable under current circumstances. The question is: what are we going to do about this predicament? Continuing the status quo is not an option.
dmeagher

I appreciate the author’s main point that “The way to low-cost higher education, then, lies largely outside the current establishment.” As with K-12 education, if those within the educational profession do not reform their institutions, reform will likely be either imposed by legislators or introduced by entrepreneurs.
jmunday

In substance, Vedder says (1) educational institutions are against change to lower costs and increase efficiency, and (2) necessary innovations are coming from outside educational institutions through the online delivery system. Various universities are committed to innovation and are already pushing online delivery, and therefore counter Vedder on both claims.

But the underlying issues he misses are mentioned by his respondents — (1) degrees as certifications are important, (2) mentoring, it is claimed, is not provided by online education, and (3) universities boost technological innovation affecting society as a whole.
#1 is hard to bypass and costs money and infrastructure. #2 is at least moderately effective via online education, if instructors are dedicated and diligent; universities can lead in this category. #3 is partly intangible, and there may be other benefits to society from educational infrastructure — a judgment call is involved in evaluating how important this is.

In sum a strong case can still be made for educational infrastructure. But the cost issue is still a bubble vulnerable to being substantially deflated, as online instruction and packaged-content delivery continue to increase.

Concerning the latter, textbooks in intro science and math are increasingly supplemented by publisher-supplied websites that handle all the mechanics of course delivery, including PowerPoints, media presentations, subject notes and summaries, and delivery of tests including a gradebook. Early innovators in online education had to prepare all the above themselves, but now the publishers have stepped in big time. If the certification issue can be worked out, online delivery without bricks&mortar infrastructure will supplant traditional education for those students cost-constrained from on-campus delights.
jaysanderson

Change is here whether we welcome it or not. We cannot just shutter the windows and wait for the storm to pass so we can go back to doing the things we have always done. Things will likely never be the same.
tgroleau

This article fits with some recent discussions I’ve had with colleagues. Homeschooling (K-12) has been around for quite some time but seems to be in a significant growth period. We could soon have a significant portion of high school graduates who view education as an independent endeavor.

Why do we think that these students will suddenly feel a need for a traditional classroom staffed by a recognized expert (either “sage on the stage” or “guide on the side”)? If they succeeded in K-12 without regular face-to-face interaction from a teacher, they’ll look for a similar college experience using books, videos, open courseware, etc.

Right now the only reason they still come to us is because we hold the monopoly on certification (degrees). Once that certification is available without the cost of traditional college trappings, then many of these students will disappear from our classes – along with their tuition revenue.
mlisaacs

Well said, Professor Osborn! I would take your statement even further. There will be no
faculty in the future if conditions for adjunct faculty continue as they are. Why would anyone
prepare for such a career when working conditions are so tenuous and pay is so low?
How can any adjunct faculty member hope to repay educational debts?
When there are no qualified faculty to replace the retiring baby boomers, perhaps someone will take
notice. Will it take a crisis to correct this situation?
eudaimon

One of the functions of a university is to create individuals capable of criticizing injustices in society. But the injustices in academia serve to demoralize students and cause them to be disillusioned with the hypocritical rhetoricians of social justice who are their professors. When they see that contingents are mistreated but cannot seek redress because tenured faculty can retaliate with impunity, they learn young that “justice is a game” and no place is safe.
MarjoryMunson

When I worked in a university accounting office, administrative and funding jargon for tenure-track faculty was “legal faculty.” How about the implications of that!
mayari

So well said! But if we are to affect change, then we need to begin now, with ourselves making change. You are doing this by writing all the time about the need for change. Josh Boldt is doing this by gathering much needed information about pay and contracts from differing universities across the US–with all our help. AND we must sign petitions, get them out there too and have others sign them, so that someone will take notice: with this in mind, I hope you can help me.

As you well know, the number of adjuncts teaching across America is quite high: over 70%, closer to 80% at community colleges. That translates to mean that we are undervalued, underpaid, in many cases, exploited. If we want to change that, please sign my petition to affect change. Sign it, post it, and then share it with others, so the petition will grow, so we can affect change: thank you. http://signon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=426534
minnesotan

I wonder if the postdocs and VAPs that fall somewhere in between being adjunct or tenure-track are the new middle class.
nobody614

You are right that it is unjust, and pedagogically flawed, to have a two-tiered system for faculty. My question is, how can this possibly change given the terrible funding issues facing every higher ed institution (other than the very few super-rich ones)? I know that my institution would love to hire many of our adjuncts full-time, but where will the money come from? Our students are already in debt up to their ears; the faculty already don’t get raises; and if we cut back on athletics or administration, then we won’t get the numbers of students we need even to support our current state of affairs. Does anyone have good ideas about alternative ways of funding higher ed?
jenifer_ward

Contingent faculty at my institution (an arts college), where I serve as an administrator, don’t necessarily teach the bulk of first-generation, immigrant, or poor students. What is perhaps more universal is the fact that contingent faculty teach the bulk of FIRST-YEAR students at most kinds of colleges. Given the tuition-driven nature of higher education and the vital need to ensure retention from year 1 to year 2 and on, we need to pay some strategic attention to what it means if the “class” of faculty most likely to be underpaid, under-respected, and exhausted from cobbling together a living wage is the same group responsible for that formidable task.
smith_citizen

As the former senior Political Science adjunct where President Obama spoke yesterday, I was never even invited to the two full time interviews for tenured positions in the 5 campus system in the 10 yeas that I taught in the system. I had successfully taught at three of the five campuses in both Political Science and History departments. It was a diversity question according to the senior African American administrative assistant for the Department. I am a white male over 50. This is where academia has gone even at two year institutions. Systems get what they prioritize and the trend for the last 20 plus years has been diversity regardless of service.
renellin

If you look at what first year students are taking, many are taking the remedial not-quite-college level classes and they aren’t eligible to take alot of classes in their major. I often wonder if you have to take all classes that are boring or don’t feed your interest, why would you stay?
renellin

We have some adjuncts that are just awesome, and they have been here for years and years and appear to carry a full load. I don’t understand why I can’t find them in their own office instead of the adjunct suite.
big_giant_head

That would be great, but it simply is not going to happen. So what ELSE can we do to change for the better?
chava812

@mayari – you may have a valid point, but until you learn the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ you will not be taken seriously by those who know it. You “effect” change if you are seeking to make a change, meaning to cause it to happen. If you ‘affect” something, it is not change. An example would be this: “The movie affected me deeply, but my lack of funds effected a change in my spending habits, and that affected how much I could spend to go to the movies.” I, for one, would not want someone teaching my children in elementary school if they didn’t know proper English. I have seen it happening to a friend’s child whose elementary teacher didn’t know that “awhile” and “a while” were both proper, but used to mean slightly different things. It may be difficult to learn the English language, but we do teach it for twelve years for free, and it is the language of this country. Things like this will count against you when you make a written submission of your requests; similar mistakes made verbally (mispronouncing words, poor grammar) will also speak against you. Just a word to the wise.
look123

I like your practice of reviewing an ad before sending it to H.R. It is something that should always be done. Check your spelling. The 2/14/12 Chronicle Of Higher Education listing from the University Of Hawai’i at Manoa’ spelled Hawai’i as Hawaia^??i.

Please distinguish the Minimum Requirements from Desirable Qualifications as very few people are full blown Experts in a list of skills that is 8 lines deep. I understand that bases must be covered and budgets must be met, but where do schools draw the line between this, and having a jack-of-all-trades staff?

Be sure to list when the application review begins. Just because the position is Open Till Filled does not mean it is not helpful to know when the review committee would like to have the applications in hand.

If you require a snail-mail delivery PLEASE make sure your campus Post Office knows to send envelopes to the department right away or PLEASE make sure the section secretary knows to go to the campus Post Office to pick the mail up every day. (Especially if it is right before the start of a new semester.) I once called a school to make sure they had gotten my envelope and found out that no one from the office had gone to pick up the mail for over a week because the semester had not yet officially started. Despite the post mark showing the mail had been sent in a timely manner I was no longer eligible for review.

If the position is pending depending on the clearance of funds please state so. It is just nice to know, so an individual can decided if it is worth the hours to put together a packet, or to fill out a online application for a job that may not exist at all. Please let us make informed decisions as we are all mortal and our time on Earth is finite.

If there is a position number please list it. Not everyone does.

Some positions require a sample of portfolio materials to be mailed in hard copy. Please state if it is all right to send a CD with images or writing samples on it, or if you require the full printouts. Printed images from the arts, or a image of a highly detailed scientific experiment can drain an expensive color cartridge in just a few prints. CD’s are cheep by comparison.

If you wish to know what an individuals salary requirement is, please make sure the University has a fairly-easy-to-find list of salary ranges for its various positions.

Just a few ideas for improving position announcements. Hope it helps.