Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global crisis by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, dramatically altered society’s daily routines, social interactions, and digital media consumption. This paper aims to evaluate how leveraging crowdsourcing techniques in combination with digital archiv...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Groningen Press
2025-05-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Life Writing |
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| Online Access: | https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42325 |
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| author | Sanita Reinsone Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska Haralds Matulis Elvīra Žvarte |
| author_facet | Sanita Reinsone Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska Haralds Matulis Elvīra Žvarte |
| author_sort | Sanita Reinsone |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global crisis by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, dramatically altered society’s daily routines, social interactions, and digital media consumption. This paper aims to evaluate how leveraging crowdsourcing techniques in combination with digital archiving strategies can effectively capture real-time autobiographical reflections during a period of crisis. The study focuses on the formation of the Latvian Pandemic Diary Collection, initiated through an open-call crowdsourcing initiative that was launched on 17 March 2020 to collect people’s recordings of their personal thoughts and emotional responses in this period of profound change and uncertainty. Methodologically, the project employed a versatile rapid-response crowdsourcing framework and dynamic digital archiving strategy, coupled with an intense outreach and social media campaign to encourage diary submissions.
The diary project has resulted in an open-access digital collection of 2,333 daily entries by 238 participants, offering unique insights into the societal shift towards digital modes of professional, social, and educational interaction in response to the pandemic’s constraints. Although the methodology applied proved effective in eliciting relatively widespread public engagement, difficulties became apparent in relation to the scalability of the approach and getting different segments of society to participate in the project through the crowdsourced-driven digital collection of autobiographical narratives in a rapidly changing social context. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-18cba55bf73d48ceaaf4d1e54f185d9e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2211-243X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | University of Groningen Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Life Writing |
| spelling | doaj-art-18cba55bf73d48ceaaf4d1e54f185d9e2025-08-20T03:09:29ZengUniversity of Groningen PressEuropean Journal of Life Writing2211-243X2025-05-0114LD1LD3410.21827/ejlw.14.4232531992Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19Sanita Reinsone0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1980-5450Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7213-4954Haralds Matulis2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0142-7677Elvīra Žvarte3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5720-3963Digital Humanities Center, University of LatviaInstitute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of LatviaInstitute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of LatviaInstitute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of LatviaThe COVID-19 pandemic, declared a global crisis by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, dramatically altered society’s daily routines, social interactions, and digital media consumption. This paper aims to evaluate how leveraging crowdsourcing techniques in combination with digital archiving strategies can effectively capture real-time autobiographical reflections during a period of crisis. The study focuses on the formation of the Latvian Pandemic Diary Collection, initiated through an open-call crowdsourcing initiative that was launched on 17 March 2020 to collect people’s recordings of their personal thoughts and emotional responses in this period of profound change and uncertainty. Methodologically, the project employed a versatile rapid-response crowdsourcing framework and dynamic digital archiving strategy, coupled with an intense outreach and social media campaign to encourage diary submissions. The diary project has resulted in an open-access digital collection of 2,333 daily entries by 238 participants, offering unique insights into the societal shift towards digital modes of professional, social, and educational interaction in response to the pandemic’s constraints. Although the methodology applied proved effective in eliciting relatively widespread public engagement, difficulties became apparent in relation to the scalability of the approach and getting different segments of society to participate in the project through the crowdsourced-driven digital collection of autobiographical narratives in a rapidly changing social context.https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42325pandemic diariescrowdsourcingdigital archivedocumentation of crisis |
| spellingShingle | Sanita Reinsone Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska Haralds Matulis Elvīra Žvarte Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 European Journal of Life Writing pandemic diaries crowdsourcing digital archive documentation of crisis |
| title | Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 |
| title_full | Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 |
| title_short | Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19 |
| title_sort | archiving uncertainty leveraging crowdsourcing methodology in documenting personal experiences of covid 19 |
| topic | pandemic diaries crowdsourcing digital archive documentation of crisis |
| url | https://ejlw.eu/article/view/42325 |
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