Data served by SCAN is dynamic, most data records and images need to be vetted, possibly corrected or simply appended with additional information. Anyone can participate in crowdsourcing to increase the quality and quantity of data served by any data provider as long as they have an internet connection and obtain permission from the data provider. The two most obvious crowdsourcing activities are transcription of label images and georeferencing.
Transcription of label images: Some collections image the labels, upload to SCAN and create a There are two primary means for transcribing and annotating data label information virtually. The most common method is to submit a project to Notes from Nature, and volunteers will transcribe label images. You can also crowdsource your work within Symbiota if you have a Live collection. In the case of Notes from Nature, the transcribed records are returned to the data provider, who then inserts the records into their database. For Symbiota crowdsourcing, all of the transcribing is performed in SCAN. Below is an example of a visual guide Sarah Bush is using to help her students transcribe slides.
The only collections that are mass imaging and crowdsourcing label images are the University of Florida (LepNet, Kaminsky, Laurel lkaminsky@floridamuseum.ufl.edu); the University of Utah (ParasiteTracker, Sarah Bush dovelouse@gmail.com ) and the University of Arizona (SCAN, Gene Hall wehall@EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU ). If you want to help process records please contact the respective data managers and they can provide you with institution-specific guides. I will also post documents SCAN WordPress . Laurel Kaminsky and Sarah Bush have provided documents that describe in general how to participate in crowdsourcing their collection data in SCAN.
Georeferencing: There are over 3 million records on SCAN that need to be georeferenced and probably over 1 million records that need to be corrected or have more precise coordinates applied. There are three ways of helping, download records and use GeoLocate or some other tool to apply coordinates, work within SCAN on specific collections and perform batch georeferencing, or vet records after batch georeferencing through Yale (Nelson Rios and Larry Gall). All three options require that you work with individual data providers to establish a protocol. If your own collection needs georeferencing then why not start there. Let me know if you need help getting started.