7. Paid Crowdsourcing as Concept and Content Generator to Enhance Museum Experiences

Current design and development practices for technologies in museums are costly and difficult to scale. We present a case study that shows that paid crowdsourcing is a viable approach for the design of a Museum app from concept to the development of a working prototype, and the creation of scalable content for over 80 museums worldwide. The concept that was developed is a quiz-type mobile app, the content of which was collected by existing crowdsourcing platforms. Our work extends prior studies of crowdsourcing in cultural institutions by reporting on the process, platforms, and data we utilized so that other institutions could replicate them. Paid crowdsourcing of content for a mobile museum application creates opportunities for new museum experiences that fit into the modern technological society. This emerging crowdsourcing approach addresses the evolving museum trend of being community-centered. The case study shows interesting opportunities for content modification regarding decent and up-to-date information which can make the application self-sustaining.