6.4 Strategies to keep people involved

It’s easy to get people to help short-term, but harder to get long-term commitment. In , we used the following strategies:

• Recognition as well as rewards: Acknowledging people’s help in public, and not just at payout stages. Each day and even week, we send out a message about our data collection milestones, and set targets for the day/week. This gives contributors something to look forward to.

• The chance to progress: Allowing active contributors to move up to the role of “trusted linguists". This means they can do validation and not just recording. People who contribute more and reach certain thresholds become trusted linguists. This motivates them to do more.

• Transparent communication: Regular updates about the impact of the project, progress towards goals, and future opportunities.

• Flexible task structures: Allowing contributors to move between recording and validation to help prevent tiredness. You need to be careful with this and perhaps check on the output of certain individuals.