Summary Of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is “the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an

employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or

community, through an “open call” to a large group of people (a crowd) asking

for contributions”.

Crowdsourcing platforms give their communities a way to contribute

meaningfully to a cause that they are passionate about and to be rewarded for

their solutions. Community members may also feel a brand-building kinship

with the crowdsourcing organisation through collaboration and contribution,

while amateur community members may benefit from interacting with industry

professionals.

For clients, solutions to problems can be explored at a relatively low-cost and

often very quickly, and clients can gain first-hand insight into their customers’

needs and desires.

In a non-commercial sense, crowdsourcing is used to maintain websites

through multilevel input. Together, community members edit, alter or upload

information to websites, sticking to rules or guidelines depending on specific

models.

However, without proper planning, negative effects can be encountered during

a crowdsourcing campaign. Crowdsourcing a campaign does not guarantee a

workable idea. Brands should take particular care to avoid creating a negative

PR backlash by not remunerating a community adequately.

That said; both commercial and non-commercial projects can benefit from

crowdsourcing as large groups of people are often able to approach problems

from multiple angles, thus increasing the chances of finding the best solution.

The Internet provides a way to tap into the collective knowledge of more than

one billion people.