User participation projects and crowdsourcing are common uses in projects all over the web. In fact, I bet you don't even realize that your part of this user participation when your inputting basic info into a chat or comment on your social media. There are so many different categories of groups on Facebook and it's amazing that we can actually put information that we have to give knowledge to others, and sometimes add it to discovering something we weren't aware of. Many times, I've seen people that I don't know, that don't know each other, comment under a post with a "Just wanted to say hi as I see we have the same last name" comment. And based on the persons personality behind the computer or phone most likely, they either say a quick "Hi" back or it turns into a discussion about family history that then transpires to their inbox.
I found a site that I thought was incredible and a perfect example of these called The Virginia Genealogy Society. This site is a Virginia based family genealogy site composed of many users inputting and logging history to tell stories. You can look up surnames and find their counties, research military records of family members who may have served, and personal records in public places. I like that site is based for Virginia and has good, narrowed down, informative information without having to start nation -wide or even country wide.
Another site that I use frequently is good ol' Facebook. There are so many groups related to crime and change their name as the newest story comes in and the information that that these participants give is amazing. Like any site when people have the capabilities to give information, you can't always assume that it's correct or credible. I think that's what makes user participation so fascinating is that for one person that comments something wrong or irresponsibly, there's two more people that have the knowledge to fact check them. In fact, I have always appreciated a good biography and typically only read and watch non-fiction and where can you always find a good documentary (even if it's potentially biased)? Yep, Netflix! I watched a documentary called 'Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer' and even though I didn't see this on Facebook myself in one of the many crime solving groups I'm in, this was an amazing documentary to show how useful user participation can be. Now, this documentary isn't for the faint of heart and you can tell that by the title, but these people were fully involved in helping find an Internet Killer.
Reverting back to Facebook...there are many groups and pages that are super useful for us to crowdsource and have user participation in. That includes one of the many Virginia sites you could do a quick search to find but this particular one is simply called, Virginia History. The sites' goal is to help promote and preserve Virginia history and like most anything on Facebook, it allows you to interact and share at your leisure!
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