#crowdsouring

The term ‘crowdsourcing’: how it is formed?

The term ‘crowd’ was used particularly as a term in which individual who self-establish of a common purpose, emotion or experience. However, organizations often use the context of ‘crowd’ to examine the collections of individuals engaged themselves in organizational purposes in order to construct competitive advantage. Therefore, crowdsourcing can be considered one of the strategic to influence the ability of an organization continuously create value to the firm (Prpic, Shukka, Kietzmann & Carthy 2014). Crowdsourcing consider as a practice of solving problems and provide localized information in order to strive for a common goal (What is Crowdsourcing, 2019). First step of crowdsourcing includes significant considerations that construct that how a crowd is formed. Then highlights the capabilities of a firm that need to establish to obtain and assimilate resources such as ideas, knowledge, expertise, time or funds from the crowd. The last step of crowdsourcing is to outlines the final decisions that the entrepreneur need to address to engage crowds effectively. In the past, people had to be physical to create the masses. However with Internet, people are able to create virtual groups because of their common preferences and interests which offer an immense opportunity to rethink and reinvent to improve organizational productivity (Sherman, 2011). 

Examples of Crowdsourcing

Undeniably, one of the most successful crowd-powered startups is Waze. Waze is an app which offer for users to report traffic jams and automatically gives directions for the best route to take. In addition, Waze also crowdsourced the information by measuring drivers speed to determine traffic jams and by request users to report if there any road closures to avoid frustration sitting in traffic. It’s consider as a distinguish app that proves a dedicated crowd is sometimes all a company needs which aims to improve quality of everyone’s daily driving(Kearns, 2015). 

On the other hand, even Samsung also realise the value of Crowdsourcing. Hence, what they seek is different from others which is innovative solutions for existing electronic products and technologies. Samsung also seek collaboration with other firms and interested individuals. In 2013, Samsung partnered with product development platform, Marbler to Crowdsource ideas on how they could utilise newly discovered patents from NASA. They provided users the opportunities to assist the company to create next product while generate a share of revenue along the way (Schoultz, 2016). As a conclusion, with the power of hundreds to thousands of creative minds throughout the world, microtasks can be performed simultaneously, and projects can be completed more quickly and cost effectively with the practice of crowdsourcing.

Introduction to Crowdfunding

The origin of crowdfunding, translated from the foreign crowding word, that is, public fundraising, is a “pre-consumption” model, which uses the form of “group purchase + pre-purchase” to raise project funds to the public with a modern way. Compared with traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is more open for funding a variety of new ventures, allowing individual founders of for profits, cultural or social projects or equity (Mollick, 2013). As long as it is a project that the public likes, the first fund can be obtained through crowdfunding, and the scale of the first fundraising will not be large, providing unlimited possibilities for more small businesses or creative people.Crowdfunding platforms collaborate an individual or entity in need of funding with community members willing to contribute cash. Although pessimists find it inexplicable, it has been consistently demonstrated that people worldwide have a philanthropic nature when it comes to causes in which they believe whether that’s an entrepreneurial product or service, disaster relief, an artist’s vision or something else entirely. Overall, crowdfunding is not just a practice to selling the idea of noble cause, but about the stories that make the cause worth contributing to (Finker, 2018).

Examples of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is an emerging fundraising measure that utilize the ease of websites or other Internet tools to raise capital for small businesses from the general public in order to accomplish their own business plans (Valancience & Jegelevicute 2013). Hence, Kickstarter is a platform used by general public who use Crowdfunding as the characteristics of the Internet and SNS to allow small entrepreneurs, artists or individuals to reveal their ideas to the public, in order to get everyone's attention and support, then to get the financial assistance needed (Harburg, Hui, Greenberg & Gerber, 2015). As a results,crowdfunding succeeds in integrating the traditional funding model with a modern way of driving business and welfare. While crowdfunding does not necessarily guarantee the longevity of a company, project or idea, it helps many individuals gain experience, mobilize communities and create relationships for other opportunities.

References

Finker, L 2018, What Crowdfunding means for Philanthropy, Executive Leadership & Philanthropy, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://lazarfinker.org/what-crowdfunding-means-for-philanthropy/>

Harburg, E, Hui, J, Greenberg, M, Gerber, E 2015, Understanding the effects of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Segal Design Institute, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6347/44b9f2be9cacd55c1ceb4902d4fe58b11def.pdf>

Kearns, K 2015, Great Examples of Crowdsource in the age empowered consumers, Tweak your biz, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers>

Mollick, E 2013, ‘The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 1 - 16.

Prpic, J, Shukla, P, Kietzmann, J, Carthy P 2014, ‘How to work a crowd: Developing crowd capital through crowdsourcing’, Business Horizons, vol. 58, Issue 1, pg. 77 - 85.

Schoultz, M 2016, How Brand Crowdsource for Continuos Ideas, Medium, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://medium.com/@mikeschoultz/how-brands-crowdsource-for-continuous-ideas-9409f62ca304>

Sherman, A 2011, How to use crowdsourcing techniques in your virtual team, Reuters, viewed 05 May 2019, <https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS405921270820110713>

Valancience, L & Jegeleviciute, S 2013, ‘Valuation of Crowdfunding: Benefits and drawbacks’, Economics and Management, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://www.ecoman.ktu.lt/index.php/Ekv/article/viewFile/3713/2499>

Years ago, we would listen to the radio or watch the TV to get an instant source of information about the accident.

Social media is not just a superficial world, dominated by celebrities. It is actually a really useful tool for communication in case of the crisis such as earthquakes, flooding or terror attacks. By citizen journalism, information about the accident can be easily spread and shared through many platforms, also can be directed to people who might be in the dangerous territory.  By use of hashtags, it is easy to navigate and understand what is happening. It is also crucial for our own safety.

Jeff Howe was the one who created the Crowdsourcing term. It can be explained as managed, focused crowds. What’s more, “it is when the company takes a job that was once performed by employees and outsourced it in the form of an open call to a large undefined group of people generally using the internet.” (Howe, 2008) Because of the progress of the internet, we are able to create the virtual crowd. What’s more, create groups (communities) with people who share the same interest as we do, even if they are on the other side of the planet.  

Ushahidi is a perfect example of the crowdsourcing.

 According to Bunting, in 2008 a group of bloggers in Kenya came up with an idea to create a crowdsourcing portal to track a “fast-moving crisis”. (2011) This site allows people to create a content and updates the online map with images and important information regarding the crisis. This site adds an impact on communities of the BP oil spill, also “irregularities in the Nigerian election and Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.” (Jeffery, 2011)

Crowdsourcing in times of the biggest disasters and accidents makes a positive impact and literally saves people’s lives. It is easy to navigate and monitor of what is happening and manage these emergencies with help of volunteers, food supplies, and first aid help.

REFERENCES:

Bunting, M. 2011. Crowdsourcing put to good use in Africa. Viewed on 29th of April. Accessed at: <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/19/crowdsourcing-good-use-in-africa>

Howe, J. 2008. Jeff Howe – Crowdsourcing. Viewed on 29th of April. Accessed at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0-UtNg3ots>

Join Fort Knox / 2112’s partner Indiegogo as Kate Drane, Senior Director of Outreach in Chicago, will be presenting a talk and workshop for bands on how to develop and manage crowd source funding campaigns with proven techniques and concepts. The event takes place at Fort Knox Studios, located at 4255 N. Knox Ave, and the session begins at 7:00 p.m.

Register here.

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     One of the savviest trends not only event planners but companies are experimenting more with this year is crowdsourcing.

Mashable defines crowdsourcing as distributed problem solving. By distributing tasks to a large group of people, you are able to mine collective intelligence, assess quality and process work in parallel.

Daily Crowdsource event, Crowdopolis, describes crowdsourcing as getting a crowd of people to help you with a task that used to take one person.

We should be designing conferences as experiences for attendees to feel active, and less passive. As an avid conference attendee, planner and manager, I can easily say it has become harder to sit through a two day conference without becoming slightly bored by the hour long sessions, chunky content splashed on large projector screens to try to follow, and listening to speakers who are noted as “thought leaders” or “SME’s” (subject matter experts), when in reality the hundreds or thousands of people clammed in around me are the real SME’s.  In order to make the crowd feel involved and a part the conference experience, give them a reason to participate. Crowdsource.

There are several ways conferences are using crowdsourcing to engage with attendees today. If you’re a conference planner, test out one or all of the suggestions below this year while mapping out your conference marketing strategies.

Create social media buzz! Enlist your attendees and online event communities to help you beef up the buzz around your conference.  Reach out and ask event attendees to share and vote on specific topics before and during the event. Make the conference experience exciting by starting a hashtag and tossing out a question for attendees to vote on each day of the conference.  Be sure to engage with those submitting ideas, and drive interest to a known crowdsourcing site on your conference website where attendees can check out all of the content being tweeted, discussed and voted on.

Tap into creative potential! Event attendees have shown an affinity for being a part of the event process and often just having their voice heard by participating in a conference poll, design contest, video creation, or speaking session is enough of an incentive to keep them engaged. Be creative, and ask your attendees to design the conference logo for the following year, make a conference t-shirt, or a fun swag item for everyone to take home. Award the top ten winning creations gift cards to promote their designs online.

Overcome the odds. Crowdsourcing was not invented yesterday, let alone a year ago. In fact, there a several historical examples of crowdsourcing you can find online that will encourage you to think outside the box when developing a new way to interact with a conference crowd. Instead of contests, polls or suggestions for content and speaker topics, why not implement a storyboard that can be used as a central location for research, thought leadership, market research, new trends, and have the story unfold in real time not only before and during a conference, but continue it after the conference takes place. Create an interactive mobile app for users to curate quality information, and view opinions from all around the world in the palm of their hand, anytime, at anyplace. “Crowdsourcing on Demand” just got super easy!