Difference between revisions of "Crowdsourcing"

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Crowdsourcing is the public delegation of open source code or software from internal employees or associates to third party developers and programmers. With the development of the Wikipedia:Winsock Trumpet Winsock software, first- and second- generation PCs could connect to the early internet, allowing the internet to explode in the late 1990s due to massive crowdsourcing, virtually allowing anyone to add new content to the internet. The result of this is the near-infinite number of unique webpages, web-based programs, and the rise of online social networks, and the open-internet model. With open source software, including software which has been crowdsourced for testing or development, ethical issues arise with regards to ownership of any resulting products and the exact definition of 'open' in open source software (GNU vs. freeware, etc).

Samsung's Android Logo is depicted above as Android OS has become one of the more successful examples of crowdsourcing.

Overview

“Crowdsourcing” can be described as the public release of open source code or software from a company or corporation to third party developers and programmers. Crowdsourcing is an innovative, powerful method in accomplishing many technological tasks and benchmarks with relative ease. The release of open source code under free software licensing systems has allowed third party programmers to manipulate, revise, and innovate new applications for Linux and Android Operating Systems, and Android mobile markets. In particular, the open sourcing of Android's operating system lets programmers and developers tweak and make changes to Android's specifications that have changed the mobile phone markets; By cutting costs and generating millions of ideas in a more convenient way. The benefits of crowdsourcing give companies more incentive to release open source code to independent programmers and developers.

In 2008, Jeff Howe published a book called "Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business" that provides an overview of the drawbacks and benefits of crowdsourcing and its many applications in business, film, and research. ^[1]

"From its start, the Internet was oriented differently from the proprietary networks and their ethos of bundling and control. Its goals were in some ways more modest. The point of building the network was not to offer a particular set of information or services like news or weather to customers, for which the network was necessary but incidental. Rather, it was to connect anyone on the network to anyone else. It was up to the people connected to figure out why they wanted to be in touch in the first place; the network would simply carry data between two points." ^[2]pg.27

Crowdsourcing in Research

Researchers at the University of Washington created a game called "Foldit" in an attempt to tap into the large population of gamers to crowdsource research results. The game asks players to predict protein structures, and in only three weeks, players were able to crack a protein structure that had been holding back AIDS research for over a decade. M-PMV, a protease enzyme in virus replication that mirrors the replication of HIV closely, had a structure that scientists were unable to uncover. The researchers knew the components of the protein, but it was simply a case of trial and error that the mass computing power of gamers was able to solve in a very short time. ^[3]

Crowdsourcing in Business

Crowdsourcing has been successful in companies you may have heard of such as Quora Search Engine, Twitter, Threadless Tees, Netflix, Crowdrise and Google among others.

Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia

Wikipedia relies on the individual edits of millions of its users to create, according to this Cnet report, an online repository of information gathered from the masses that is just as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica, the longtime standard in encyclopedias. Wikipedia's core model relies on a hierarchy of anonymous contributors that help to ensure the accuracy of wikipedia, while only having a skeletal staff officially part of the business. For more information, see the oversight structure of wikipedia.

Threadless

On Threadless, artists can create their own t-shirt designs where other community members vote for their favorite designs. They use incentive-based marketing where members receive credit for referring friends that later become customers, and winning designers receive up to $2,000, but more importantly acknowledgment from their peers. It goes without saying Google Android has had success in the mobile phone market, and threadless tees parallels that success by give consumers a chance to leave feedback on shirt designs and customize t-shirts like never before.

Linux

Linux is an open-source software developed by thousands of contributors both amateurs and professionals alike. Contributors disseminated the work to suit their own expertise. As more contributors submit their work, the reputability of Linux grows.

InnoCentive/ Proctor & Gamble

Proctor & Gamble used out-of-house research for product development and opened communication between departments. Researchers sought solutions for Proctor & Gamble, not only to receive compensation, but to build their resume and to solve a meaningful challenge outside the workplace. The creation of Innocentive has helped triple P&G's net profit to $10 billion.

We Are the Strange

Mike Belmont, an amateur filmmaker created a fan base through YouTube without the help of movie producers and eventually premiering a movie at the 2007 Sundance Festival. By showing clips on YouTube, he was able to receive feedback and perfect his videos the liking of the audience. This marked an important change in movie production with no middle-man, cutting cost and allowing fans to become more personally invested in the movie.

eBird

eBird is an internet site where anyone can post bird sightings. Because of the large data submissions, they are able to identify the pattern of flights that would not be able tracked with just professionals. This gives the professionals more time to interpret the data.

Quora

Quora increased its reliability and popularity as a search engine and question answering forum through crowdsourcing. By granting users permission to vote answers and search links up or down, Quora combines aspects of Wikipedia with attributes of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to give users a balanced, impeccable search engine and question and answer forum. Like Wikipedia, content can be linked to relevant topics and answers, and edited if they are not operating to Quora’s crowdsourcing standard. The crowdsourcing components of Quora’s website, and its' follow feature similar to Twitter have helped Quora to gain unprecedented success.

Netflix

Netflix boldly offered one million dollars for its crowdsourcing contest. The challenge went to any programmers and developers who could build or improve upon Netflix’s current software and system of recommending movies to its subscriber base. Three years later, Netflix’s customer base is nearly 24 million and they are generating over 2 billion dollars in revenue.

Crowdrise

Robert Wolfe, a serial entrepreneur, created Crowdrise which is an online fundraising site that uses crowdsourcing to get people to donate to various charities.

Failures

GAP's failed crowdsourcing attempt at rebranding themselves was represented by this new logo.

Unfortunately, crowdsourcing has had its failures as well. GAP Clothing's logo change was crowdsourced for public opinion and feedback that caused GAP to make certain decisions leading to the collapse of the company's financial structure and well-being. Crowdsourcing is beneficial in many cases, but this was not one of them. ^[4] GAP relied exclusively on crowdsourcing to generate feedback for its new logo and change in branding. A large response of negative public opinions does not necessarily equate to a need for change in real world situations.^[5] Instead of remaining confident in their new logo, GAP tried to reinvent their product image and positioning over and over again. As a result, GAP unintentionally distanced themselves even farther from their consumer base. Eventually, GAP collapsed financially and was forced to shut down.

Crowdsourcing in Other Sectors

Ushahidi's crowdsourcing platform utilized for the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill

Crowdsourcing is increasingly being utilized in the non-profit sector. Ushahidi, an open source platform that aggregates user-contributed information in the form of an interactive GIS map, was developed during the 2007 Kenyan election violence. Since then, the platform has been extensively used in mapping natural disaster areas and rioting in the 2010 Haitian earthquake and Japanese tsunami.

Ethical Conflicts To Consider in Crowdsourcing

While crowdsourcing has the ability to produce successful outcomes for consumer businesses and improvements in technology, the ethical concerns mentioned below should be considered.

Ownership

The conflict of ownership and patent use may becoming a larger problem as the community of developers working on open source projects increases. Successes such as Google Android have been increasing their compatibility with Netflix, Quora and the expansive mobile market. For example, the Android OS's ability to hold multi-core processors allows for advanced program capability, elicit File Sharing, storage, and availability. If a developer were to enhance the processing ability of Android 2.2, would Google have a patented share or would the developer have full control and ownership? Third-party developers are beginning to wonder though whether or not their programs and applications will be unique and owned by the creator, or if Google will authorize a policy in which they can patent or control a share of all profits from third party development of Android Operating System programs and applications. Another problem arises if a developer creates an application or program that improves upon the original open source code he or she obtained publicly. If the developer receives praise and profits from ameliorating another programmer's open source code, is he inclined or forced to acknowledge the original developer's contributions? These are some of the predicaments and ethical implications of crowdsourcing in today's information society.

Accountability

Another inherent problem in crowdsourcing is the lack of accountability. If everyone is in charge, no one is responsible for their actions. This causes uncertainty and leaves users’ projects and creations to subjective and misguided errors. For example, what if someone created several fake accounts and purposely tried to give great feedback to irrelevant links or intentionally answer questions incorrectly on Quora? They could do this to humor themselves, or maybe they had an agenda in mind because they were pro-Google and against Quora for any arbitrary reason. If there were no checks and balances in place to correct these errors, crowdsourcing could potentially hurt a company or website's image and branding more than it would help.

Inclusion

Proponents of crowdsourcing advocate believe that the products created through community development and design are superior in terms of creativity and often result in better quality results and products than those of other means. However, this assumption about crowdsourcing is not always necessarily true.

For example, oftentimes crowdsourcing does not fully engage the creativity of a diverse group of people. The digital divide that separates people from crowdsourcing infrastructure such as the Internet prevents many from participating in crowdsourcing's collective capability. Crowdsourcing products that seek to represent a wealth of diverse opinions are oftentimes solely limited to their greatest participants: mainly young, white males. Therefore, crowdsourcing's potential goal to seek out creative and diverse voices and opinions has not been fulfilled.

Reliability

Additionally, crowdsourcing products may not be better in terms of quality. Crowdsourcing relies on consensus to craft or formulate its final product, and what a crowd thinks is the best, may not always be the most accurate. For example, Wikipedia, a crowdsourcing platform for maintaining a user-generated encyclopedia, can have misinformation if a statement is widely assumed to be true when it is not.

See Also

• Cloud Computing
• Crowdsourcing blog from a project group in SI 301 Winter 2010
• File Sharing
• Information Integrity

Citations and References

1. ↑ Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business. New York: Crown Business, 2008. Print.
2. ↑ Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Print.
3. ↑ http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/234664.php
4. ↑ Lippman, Greg. "Crowdsourcing Their Way Into One Big Mess." Brandweek: Vol. 51, Issue 38. 25 Oct 2010. Web. 3 Oct 2011: 26.
5. ↑ O'Neil, Mathieu. "Shirky and Sanger, or the Costs of Crowdsourcing." Journal of Science Communication. SISSA International School for Advanced Studies, 1 Sept 2010. Web. 3 Oct 2011.

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