Our values

Overarching values

These values are important to us as the initiators, stakeholders and teams in crowdsourcing and digital participation projects, and in how to run the Collective Wisdom project (including, for example, our calls for participation): 

• We will honour the voluntary work and expertise that participants contribute to crowdsourcing projects
• We will look to and adapt existing ethical standards, including the European Citizen Science Associations 'Ten principles of citizen science', the Colored Conventions Project's principles and workshop discussions about ethics in digital humanities and cultural heritage crowdsourcing for fundamental points to consider when working with participants, and in extending the field of practice to include wider forms of digitally-enabled participation
• We will normalise the inclusion of antiracist and intersectional considerations and actions in digital and curatorial programs 
• We will engage with the intellectual discomfort this may entail for us, participants and our organisations
• We will ensure that Black participants and other participants of color are not expected to serve as educators for other team members
• We will design positive and inclusive experiences for others
• We will acknowledge the external commitments of project participants and do our part to ensure low risk of ‘burnout’ 

Enacting these values through our events

Planned events include a book sprint, a workshop, and an open comment period on the book produced in the first sprint. While our plans are still highly subject to change, when planning events we will enact those values by:

• Designing a structure with the Book Sprint facilitators that allows for synchronous participation across time zones spanning 8 hours 

• Including a clear outline of the time commitments expected during the book sprint, with as much information on specific time blocks of synchronous and asynchronous commitments on specific dates as possible

• Designing a daily writing structure that acknowledges ‘Zoom fatigue’ and includes opportunities for participants to participate asynchronously for part of their time

• Creating a project timeline that is inclusive of participants, including caretakers and parents, people with disabilities, people who are living with temporary or chronic illness, participants with precarious employment or who are unemployed, those employed outside the fields of academia and the cultural heritage sector, and those whose responsibilities have changed in response to the coronavirus 

• Ensuring that the project structure does not exclude participants for any of the reasons listed above

• Ensuring that the process of commenting on the book is as user-friendly as possible
  
• Acknowledging that the restructuring of this project in an online setting gives priority to written contributions, and committing to incorporating multiple forms of communication (such as spoken conversation or asynchronous options) as a way to ensure that participants have a range of opportunities to participate