Crowdsourcing as defined by Wikipedia is “is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. This process is often used to subdivide tedious work or to fund-raise startup companies and charities, and can also occur offline. It combines the efforts of numerous self-identified volunteers or part-time workers, where each contributor of their own initiative adds a small portion to the greater result. The term "crowdsourcing" is a portmanteau of "crowd" and "outsourcing"; it is distinguished from outsourcing in that the work comes from an undefined public rather than being commissioned from a specific, named group.” (Wikipedia 5/4/2014). The definition is further refined by Jeff Howe of Wired magazine as follows: “Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.” (Brabham 76) One think Jeff Howe later clarifies in his definition that isn’t included in the Wikipedia definition is “it is only crowdsourcing once a company takes that design, fabricates [it] in mass quantity and sells [it]. (Brabham 76) Howe’s clarification might have been accurate in the classic sense in 2006, but non-profit organizations have been using crowdsourcing as well to solve problems th...
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... Daniel Veit. "More than Fun and Money. Worker Motivation in Crowdsourcing - A Study on Mechanical Turk." Proceedings of the Seventh Americas Conference on Information Systems (2011): 1-11. Web.
5. Naroditskiy, Victor, Nicholas R. Jennings, Pascal Van Hentenryck, and Manuel Cebrian. "Crowdsourcing Delimma." University of Southampton National Information and Communications Technology Australia (2014): 1-15. Web.
6. Schenk, Eric, and Claude Guittard. "Crowdsourcing: What Can Be Outsourced to the Crowd, and Why?" University of Strasbourg Graduate School of Science and Technology (2009): 1-29. Web.
7. Thomas, Stuart. "9 Examples of Crowdsourcing, before ‘crowdsourcing’ Existed." Memeburn. N.p., 15 Sept. 2011. Web. 4 May 2014.
8. Youden, Diane, Jean Lee, and Justin Angsuwat. "Harnessing the Power of Crowdsourcing." PWC Advisory People and Change (Summer 2011): 1-8. W
eaglenet.lambuth.edu. Web. The Web. The Web. 28 July 2011.
Through the case study, the scientists found that the proliferation of such efforts can only be supported through a collective effort on the part of both private and public entities (Halloran, Clement, Kornum, Bucatariu, & Magid, 2014). Quite simply, it is not something that can be done easily or individually, and a change will require a drastic molding and shift in consumer thinking.
Crowdsourcing is a term coined in 2006 by a magazine editor named Jeff Howe. Howe felt crowdsourcing was similar to outsourcing just on a much larger scale. Companies gather hundreds to thousands of people via the internet to perform jobs or tasks using their ideas and skills and then the companies would take these ideas and use them. However, this concept of crowdsourcing has been around long before the internet. For century’s companies such as Pillsbury, with their Bake Off contest that started in 1949 and other well-known companies have used the concept behind crowdsourcing to make successful business decisions as well as great paid off in the end. Although the internet has enabled crowdsourcing to become a more powerful tool for companies
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations is a book written by James Surowiecki that was first published in 2005. In it, Surowiecki argues that, thanks to the aggregation of information present in groups, the results of a group lead to better decisions than could have been made by any one of the group members, individually. Surowiecki uses multiple examples across many fields and domains to prove his theory. Ranging from psychology to economics, Surowiecki gives evidence to the highly functional aspect of groups and how, given the right combination of factors, a group will always be more successful in its results than individuals. To understand what it takes for a crowd to be wise, we must first understand what defines a crowd – Surowiecki says that a crowd is “really any group of people who can act collectively to make decisions and solve problems”. One of the very first anecdotes given in the book relates Francis Galton’s bewilderment at a crowd’s ability, once their scores were averaged, to more accurately guess the weight of a butchered ox than a common individual. This anecdote proves the thesis that “the idea of the wisdom of crowds is not that a group will always give you the right answer, but that it will consistently come up with a better answer than any individual can provide.”
Kahn states that his book is for the “rabble-rousers, activists and quiet lovers of justice.” I would consider myself as the “quiet lover of justice” however, I have a notion to do more. During my volunteer experience in Buffalo, NY, I joined and remained part of community organizing groups and coalitions, the Erie County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, VOICE Buffalo, and People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo. In these organizations, I attended general meetings and public meeting events, signed petitions, joined public rallies and rallies in NY State capital, and volunteered services at fundraising events. While participating in these community organizing groups, I observed the organizers’ leadership and techniques in increasing the levels of personal and collective power, and how that allowed for change in the community.
Tomeski, Edward, Lazarus, Harold, People-Oriented Computer Systems: The Computer in Crisis, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1975
Employees are not the only people whose information interest companies. To a far greater extent, businesses are looking to gather data on their users and the market in general. User data collection has become one of the most important components of market research. For example, online retailers can use data collected from a consumer’s purchase to target advertising on products that the consumer is most likely to buy....
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.
...s or user feedback, related patterns and similar approaches for possible solutions .to this problem, and source code (Hagge, & Lappe, 2005).
Crowdfunding permits originators of revenue driven, imaginative, and social dares to store their endeavors by drawing on moderately little commitments from a generally expansive number of people utilizing the web, without standard fiscal mediators. It proposes that individual systems and underlying task quality are connected with the accomplishment of Crowdfunding deliberations, and that topography is identified with both the kind of activities proposed and effective raising money. Crowdfunding tasks can extend incredibly in both objective and extent, from little masterful activities to business people looking for countless dollars in seed capital as an elective to customary funding financing.
...l future report. University of Southern California Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.digitalcenter.org/pdf/Center-for-the-Digital-Future-2005-Highlights.pdf
Throughout this term, my fellow classmates and I have had a chance to participate in a group project with two or three of our peers. The general topic was a vivid problem in a industry. Our class had a very wide and diverse sets of topics: from Styrofoam, to industrial hacking, to corruption in an influential international organization like FIFA, and so many more. Our group decided to develop a project named “Outsourcing and the price we pay for brands”. The name itselves is somewhat self-explanatory, however the problem is so much more complicated and interesting. In this paper, many struggles and concerns, of the group and of my my own, will be unfolded as I reflect the progress of this project.
Gabbel, Alfred S. "How the Internet Changed Our World." Science and Technology June 2004: 73-75.