Crowdsourcing

Week 8 – October 26, 2011

Crowdsourcing

The act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.

– Wikipedia

Jeff Howe

• Wired Magazine editor, Author – “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.”

• Established that since crowdsourcing is an open call to people, it gathers those who are most fit to perform tasks, solve complex problems and contribute with the most relevant and fresh ideas.

Crowdsourcing Benefits

– Gain new ideas and information with little investment – leverage customers/stakeholders to develop content

– Create a sense of ownership in final product– Save time: Businesses can get results quickly by applying

massive manpower to a problem or project– Get sophisticated: Members of the crowd are some of

the best designers, photographers, QA testers, etc. in the world. Businesses gain access to these experts at a fraction of what it would cost to hire them full time.

– Diversity of thinking : Receive ideas from a diverse group of people = holistic solutions to unique challenges

Crowdsourcing Outcomes

• Create new content that is owned and generated by readers– Wikipedia.org – www.wikipedia.org – Crowdspring.com – www.crowdspring.com

• Invent new ideas or have community rank/vote on concepts– My Starbucks Idea -

http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ – Innocentive – www.innocentive.com

Crowdsourcing Outcomes

• Organize: create new content by asking readers to organize existing content– Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon

• Predict trends by asking users to submit or vote on ideas– www.mediapredict.com

Crowdsourcing’s Best: VW in China

Crowdsourcing Failures

• Why Wikipedia is not the best source– False Death Reports

• Ted Kennedy & Miley Cyrus

– Libel • Robbie Williams eats pet hamsters, • Blair and Hitler posters – Wikipedia launched an investigation

– General False Information• Death in the Afternoon reported to be non-fiction about

ceremonies and traditions of Spanish brothels. Reality = book is about Spanish bull fighting

Wikipedia Best Practices

• Edits must reflect consensus• When possible, edits will include links to other

online sources as well as “Wikipedia links” which would link to the existing Wikipedia article for that specific subject

• Articles are not a place for self-promotion and edits should be kept purely factual by improving content, grammar or formatting

Offering Best Practice Counsel• Identify specific factual inaccuracies, errors and omissions with the team• Discuss significance of errors and omissions• Determine initial recommendations for proposed additions • Review the proposed additions with respect to Wikipedia values (e.g.,

neutrality vs. self-interest)• Determine the final additions to be proposed• Draft the proposed additions with detailed third party citations• Review final draft for posting to the Discussion Tab• Create a transparent Wikipedia account to make proposed additions• Post the proposed additions to the Discussion Tab, clearly stating who they

are and references for the proposed additions• If proposed additions are not made by other Wikipedia editors after two or

three weeks, make the additions directly and post another message in the Discussion Tab indicating his/her actions