Crowdsourcing- in times of crisis
Crowd sourcing in times of crisis is one of the seemingly, visible positive things you can give in such a time; something you can do as a society and an individual to directly help someone in need out.
One way of crowdsourcing that I, have taken part in and continue to, is giving blood. The Australian Red Cross allows people to give blood, plasma and platelets by simply booking an appointment- educated medical professionals are there to interview and take your blood and take care of you. This is a way of crowdsourcing that makes it easy for people to give in a less traditional way than money- I think if you can, this is one of the easiest and most effective way of giving to those in need. It does not discriminate to a specific socio-economic group therefore allowing a plethora and varied group of people to give. The way social media plays into this more is how The Red Cross can market to an array of persons that they perhaps couldnât have reached before. âCrowdsourcing bloodâ has a certain ring to it, doesnât it?
Another way of crowdsourcing that I think is particularly pertinent to this platform and time is how people are using social media to crowdsource. Twitter and Facebook, namely. Arc Centre for Excellence for Creative Industryâs and Innovation wrote about the Queensland floods and the role Twitter played- âAs the most visible account on #qldfloods, the Queensland Police Service Media Unit account (@QPSMedia) played a leading role in disseminating timely and relevant information to the public, and in coordinating and guiding the wider discussion.â (Bruns, Burgess, Crawford and Shaw, 2012).
Another example of social media crowdsourcing is how Facebook introduced âSafety Checkâ as a response to crisis. This response allows people to let their friends and family know theyâre safe as the news starts travelling around the world. This blanket way of letting people know youâre safe in troubled times in a fantastic way of crowdsourcing information but there is some strengthâs and weaknesses to it. The strength in particular is the speed and efficiency it can spread news, it takes the burden off of governments and individuals. It does have a weakness though, it can give information to a large group of people on your friends list. The other critic the feature has recieved which I think is interesting to consider is when Facebook actually activate it, when is the situation reaching crisis level enough to activate and who gets to decide this?
