Using crowd sourcing to create the UK SoundMap
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The document discusses the UK Soundmap project, which aims to collect and map everyday sounds from across the UK using crowdsourced audio recordings over a 12-month period. It highlights the use of the Audioboo app for user-generated content, challenges associated with legal risks, and the project's success in engaging the public and contributing to research. The pilot phase included 1,600 recordings with a focus on sound diversity, while also raising questions about data quality and the relevance of collected sounds.
Using crowd sourcing to create the UK SoundMap
- 1. Using crowdsourcing to create the UK SoundMap - Richard Ranft, British Library Metadata & Web 2.0 - 4th annual CIGS seminar 23 Feb 2011 National Library of Scotland
- 2. 2001: ‘Listen to Nature’ maps www.bl.uk/listentonature
- 3. ‘ Sounds Familiar’ British dialects map www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar
- 4. Archival Sound Recordings maps www.bl.uk/sounds
- 5. Radio Aporee map Bullet 1 Bullet2 Bullet 3
- 6. UK Sound Map: Aims Explore potential for web mash-ups for digital scholarship Partnership with Noise Futures Network Map evolution of national soundscapes by aggregating everyday sounds from around UK for 12 months Test low-cost, innovative techniques for crowdsourcing research data with real-time capture-&-publish model
- 7. Audioboo app “ Twitter without typing… User generated BBC Radio 4 The Youtube of the spoken word” Free app, launched March 2009 iPhone & Android ‘smart’phones or, Audioboo via any web browser 5 minutes limit Twitter, Facebook integration Contributors 80,000 Recordings 280,000 Listens 11 m. (66,000/day) Top contributors UK, USA, Germany
- 10. Method ‘ Pro’ Audioboo account – magic tags Pilot in Sheffield city July 2010 UK-wide August 2010 Use of social networks Amazon cloud service FLAC audio, metadata (tags, #uksm, photo, time/date, GPS) capture FLAC, metadata archive mp3, metadata publish ?#uksm moderation magic tag
- 11. Web browser recording & upload
- 12. Challenges Legal / reputational risks of user-generated content: deliberate or inadvertent capture of 3rd party rights defamatory remarks invasions of privacy or compromised confidentiality Mitigated by: moderation of all contributions Take-down notice Clear instructions to contributors Some legal protections (incidental licences, reasonable doubt)
- 13. Technical quality - lowering the quality bar? iPhone : 22kHz, 16-bit mono FLAC Other phones – large variety of other files Omni mic – wind noise Web uploads – large variety, stereo PCM wav but also highly compressed formats
- 14. iPhone - white noise spectrum anti-aliasing filter speech emphasis
- 15. Android phone - white noise spectrum
- 16. Results Whose brainchild was this? Will anyone really be interested in sounds originating from 2010? Don't we have anything better to do with taxpayers money? (a Blogger) The increasingly innovative British Library (BBC Technology blog) @dollyskilbeck: Can't describe the pure pleasure and pride in contributing to @UK_SoundMap #uksm #audioboo (Twitter) Winner, UK social media communications award (public sector category)
- 17. Results II 1,600 recordings from July 10- Feb ‘11 260 contributors ( ≈ 4 per contributor) 82% made with mobiles. The remainder used dedicated audio recorders Voices and direct human actions Amplified sounds and music Machinery Sounds of wind and water Animals Emerging themes (e.g. decline of whistling in public; female voices predominate in public announcements) Very limited metadata
- 18. Moderating the data 6% recordings rejected to date: Reasons for rejection: Copyright (music/broadcast/performance) 36% Poor quality (wind noise, low level) 22% No geodata 19% Obscenities, time wasters, advertising etc 19% Recorded outside UK 3%
- 20. Locations
- 21. time and tide bell, Bosta (Outer Hebrides, Scotland)
- 24. Next project: Evolving Englishes map Read 6 words: controversy, garage, neither, scone, schedule, attitude Or, read 'Mr Tickle‘: It was half past eight on a rather warm, sunny morning. In his small house at the other side of the wood, Mr Tickle was fast asleep. He was having a dream. It must have been a very funny dream because it made him laugh out loud and that woke him up. He sat up in bed, stretched his extraordinary long arms and yawned an enormous yawn….
- 26. Conclusions Selection - still a manual process Low quality – mass observation Simple to implement: RSS feeds to Google map mashup Cost effective way to rapidly collect large amounts of data Augments existing research collections Engages wider public with your institution; ‘democratises the curator's role’
- 27. Thanks for listening! http://sounds.bl.uk/uksoundmap http://twitter.com/uk_soundmap http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/maplisten.html richard.ranft@bl.uk www.bl.uk/listentonature www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar www.bl.uk/sounds http://radio.aporee.org/ http://audioboo.fm/ www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/