Advantage Of Crowdsourcing

A. What is Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing, a term rarely used outside the business world, is actually a popular practice applied discretely all around us. It is where an organization recruits a variety of freelancers to work on a specific task or problem to get things done, without ever actually having to meet them in person. Understandably, this notion may come across as radical and risky as it indeed is; however, it is also a very real and important business idea that is rapidly revolutionizing the way we do business.
While explanations may vary, the primary concept of crowdsourcing is to draw onto the combined intelligence of the public to do tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or delegate to a third-party. Free labor, ironically enough, is only a narrow part of crowdsourcing's appeal. The greater benefit that crowdsourcing yields is that it enables managers to expand the size of their talent pool while also strategically gaining a deeper insight into what customers really want, thus increasing their value and overall marketshare via an interactive medium.
B. Benefits of Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing can effectively improve productivity and creativity while lowering certain overhead costs. Utilizing the Internet to implore a reception from an active and passionate community of customers can reduce the amount of time spent collecting data through formal focus groups, while also instilling enthusiasm for future merchandise. By recruiting a body of consumers in business-related processes, executives can lower both staffing expenses and the risks that come with an uncertain marketplace demand.
C. Cons of Crowdsourcing
While crowdsourcing may reap many benefits the truth of the matter is that crowds are not per...

... middle of paper ...

...ney when their images are purchased or downloaded.
Threadless.com allows participants to submit and vote upon T-shirt designs/ideas to decide which ones should be pursued. uTest provides app trial solutions for venture clients including Amazon, Virgin, & Sony. Solutions are based on the fundamentals of crowdsourcing to permit clients access to software testers in over 200 countries on an on-demand basis.
“uTest has been listed at No. 7 on Forbes' third annual ranking of America's Most Promising Companies.”
F. Conclusion
The idea of calling on the public for input is barely new, of course, and the open-source movement has shown us that it can be done with incredibly large masses of individuals. The difference, however, is that today's technology enables large numbers of non-technical people to complete complex and creative tasks, at significantly lowered expenses.