Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is the action of acquirring work and information from a large group of people via the internet. This information can be obtained from social media and other forms of media throughout the internet. Crowdsourcing allows companies to work with people throughout the world and aquire a variety of different skills. crowdsourcing image

variations of crowdsourcing

Idea Generation: Seeking ideas and suggestions from the crowd to solve a problem or improve a product.

Microtasks: Breaking down a large task into smaller, manageable microtasks that can be distributed to a crowd.

Funding: Crowdfunding platforms, where a crowd financially supports projects, products, or causes.

ata Collection: Gathering and analyzing data through contributions from a large number of individuals.

Open Innovation: Involving external contributors in the innovation process of a company.

benefits of crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is cost efficent because it allows access to talented workers without the need for a traditional workforce. Also, projects and work can be completed in a lesser amount of time due to the many contributors. Finally, the diversity of contributors can lead to innovative ideas and solutions that may have not emerged in a traditional setting.

Example of crowdsourcing

A well-known example of crowdsourcing is the website Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia where anybody can contribute and add information onto the site.

drawbacks of crowdsourcing

There might be complications when crowdsourcing such as difficulties in confidentiality and communication between the groups involved. There is also a slight chance of receiving low quality work if a collaborater misunderstands the project’s requirements.

Popcorn Hack

How can organizations optimize crowdsoucing while minimizing the drawbacks?

Citizen Science

  • Citizen Science is scientific research that the general population helps to conduct. Ordinary citizens, often non-scientists, help contribute data to research projects using computing devices.
  • Gives a wide range of people the ability to contribute to scientific studies which provides more diverse data.

    Popcorn Hack

    How do you believe participating in a citizen science project could enhance both scientific research and public engagement, and can you share any specific areas of scientific study where citizen science might make a significant impact in the future?

Homework

Question 1

Explain the concept of crowdsourcing. Provide examples of how it is commonly used in different fields.

Crowdsourcing is the process of getting input by soliciting inputs from a big group of people. This uses collective intelligence and a diverse group of people to generate ideas. It is commonly used in open source software development, citizen science, and data annotation.

Question 2

Discuss the benefits and challenges associated with crowdsourcing. How can organizations effectively harness the power of crowdsourcing while mitigating potential drawbacks?

Some benefits of crowdsourcing includes allowing a diverse expertise, being cost effective, and getting faster results. Some drawbacks of crowdsourcing include quality control, security, and bias/manipulation. Organizations can harness the power of crowdsourcing by insuring there are quality control mechanisms that don’t allow faulty data. They can also have clear guidelines and insructions which helps maintain the quality of data.

Question 3

Identify a real-world example of a successful crowdsourcing project. Explain the project, its goals, and the positive outcomes achieved through the collaboration of a large group of people.

A notable example of a successful crowdsourcing project is Foldit. The primary goal of Foldit was to find how protein folding works. Foldit transformed this into a game allowing players to make protein folding into a puzzle game. One positive outcome of this was in 2011 when gamers found a solution to the structure of a protein related to the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus. This game also led to the acceleration of research on the protein folding process.

Question 4

Create a hypothetical scenario where crowdsourcing could be applied to solve a specific problem. Describe the problem, the type of contributions you would seek from the crowd, and the potential impact of implementing the crowdsourced solution.

The problem is that in a city there is a lot of traffic congestion and inefficient public transportation. The contribution from the crowd would be to analyze the traffic paterns within the city. Using data provided by the city, citizens can analyze peak traffic hours and areas without optimal traffic flow. The potential impact is that this would lead to evidence based decision making for transportation management.