Supporting High-Stakes Investigations with Expert-Led Crowdsourcing

Abstract

My dissertation introduces the concept of expert-led crowdsourcing (ELC) to support expert investigators who increasingly face limits on their time and attention. ELC combines experts’ domain knowledge and experience with the speed and scale of crowds. I study ELC in two investigative domains: journalism and law enforcement. Through four studies, I show: 1) how novice crowds can effectively augment expert investigators’ work practice; 2) the ethical tensions in conducting an ELC investigation for real-world, sensitive investigations; 3) how capture-the-flag competitions increase inter-team collaboration in ELC investigations; and 4) how different teamwork structures affect intra-team collaboration in ELC investigations.