Page:Crowdsourcing and Open Access.djvu/33

2010] scripts for managing more complex tasks. The architecture of the site permits users to contribute according to their respective expertise. Like any other organizational tool, however, crowdsourced methods have weaknesses as well as strengths. Goal-setting and prioritization of work is a recurring issue for projects situated outside any formal organizational structure. For example, Wikisource, like Wikipedia or any number of similar open-content projects, has no “benevolent dictator” assigning tasks or ensuring that user effort flows to where it is most needed. User contributions are largely self-directed towards those areas where their interests happen to gravitate.

The problem of sustaining user engagement over time in the absence of traditional incentives (such as the payment of a salary) is also endemic to many crowdsourced projects. Users of peer-produced projects are free to come and go, and there is no guarantee that a user who launches any given project will see it through to completion. Although some users diligently perform work (such as archiving past discussions and rationalizing the site’s frequently confusing categorization structures) that improves the quality and usefulness of the site overall, most users appear to be focused on expanding the library by adding new content. In consequence, Wikisource is an unruly patchwork, with comparatively stable and well-organized content existing alongside fragmentary works organized only according to the idiosyncratic whim of a particular contributor. Although Wikipedia seems not to be in any imminent danger of