..the end goal of Prism is to produce aesthetic provocations, that is, visualizations which provoke further discussion. But because it is a digital project, Prism can integrate many individual interpretations and create a wide range of visualizations while maintaining data integrity.

Prism expands upon current notions of crowdsourcing to allow for more meaningful interaction with "the crowd." Users interact subjectively with a text and contribute to a collective interpretive energy that has infinite possibilities beyond the highlighting exercise itself

Prism is a tool for "crowdsourcing interpretation." The concept emerged from a decade-long conversation on categories of textual interpretation which took place at the University of Virginia, and specifically from transparency mark-up games designed by Bethany Nowviskie for her Media Studies students and her colleagues in SpecLab