crowdsourcing tools and applications

HABTAMU DUGO

CROWDSOURCING

What is crowdsourcing?

• Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem solving and production model.

• Users--also known as the crowd--typically form online communities based on the website, and the crowd submits solutions to the site or produce its contents.

• The crowd can also sort through the solutions, finding the best ones.

• These best solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place--the crowdsourcer

• The winning individuals in the crowd are sometimes rewarded.

• Many individuals in the crowd participate just for intellectual stimulation or because of emotional ties to product or service

Definition Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks,

traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a "crowd"), through an open call.

The term “crowdsourcing” was coined by journalist Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired magazine article, which established that the concept of crowdsourcing depends essentially on the fact that because it is an open call to an undefined group of people, it gathers those who are most fit to perform tasks, solve complex problems and contribute with the most relevant and fresh ideas.

For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design[1] or "design by democracy" and distributed participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see human-based computation), or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).

Video: Crowdsourcing Explained

Elements of the Crowd

Journalism Schools Organizations Individuals Corporations Governments Non-profit Startups

Who Can Use Crowdsourcing?

Some Applications of Crowdsourcing

• Testing & Refining a ProductNetflix uses crowdsourcing techniques to improve

the software algorithms used to offer customers video recommendations for the prize of $1 million for the winner.

SellaBand allows artists to create a profile and start raising funds for their music.

• Market ResearchThreadless allows users to score designs and

submit design. Knowledge Management• Accenture provides management consulting. • Wikipedia invites largely anonymous volunteers

to write collaboratively without pay.

• Customer Service• My Starbucks Ideas solicits product, experience and involvement ideas.

•Open Source Software Development• Linux and Open Office

• R & D• InnoCentive• P&G Connect & Develop

• Polling and Voting• InTrade??• Building a new city??• iStockphoto??

Some Application of Crowdsourcing

Economics & WikinomicsEn

terp

rise

Web

2.0

Util

ity

# of Contributors

Expert$$$$

Masses$

10 100 1000 10,000+

4,000 experts80,000 articles200 years to developAnnual Updates“8.8/10.0 Reliability”

100,000 amateurs1.6 Million articles5 years to developReal-Time Updates“8.0/10.0 Reliability”

Ushahidi collaborated with citizen journalists to map incidents of violence in post-election Kenya in 2008 and is now used around the world to map violence.

Applications of Crowdsourcing to Journalism, Media and Film

Cicada Trackers WYNC’s data team partnered with NPR RadioLab’s project dubbed “Mapping Swarmageddon.” They distributed sensors to the crowd from CT to GA to alert scientists when they saw cicadas emerge—predict their arrival.

This was a very successful CS project leading to mapping Cicadas.

Application of Crowdsourcing to Journalism

Stop and Frisk Watch App for iPhone and Android (Available in English and Spanish) The New York Civil Liberties Union launched

the app “ to empower New Yorkers to monitor police activity and hold NYP accountable for unlawful stop-and-frisk encounters and other police misconduct.”

The App has three primary functions: record, listen, and report.

NYCLU reports a success because the app was downloaded over 30,000 times.

Application of Crowdsourcing to Journalism….

Times and the Lede Blog Times took journalistic crowdsourcing to the

next level by inviting members of the crowd at the scene of the Boston Marathon bombing to verify information in frozen frames.

Times assigned editors and reporters vet the videos and themselves first by finding the people in the video and then asking the crowd to help them find the rest: “ Were you or someone you know at the Marathon

finish line?” 4 of the 19 verified accounts came from the

crowd.

Application of Crowdsourcing to Journalism…

The Guardian’s MP Expenses Scandals Experiment

Shoveled public record onto a simple feedback interface and enlisted more than 20,000 volunteers to help them “find needles in the haystack.”

170, 000 documents reviewed in the first 80 hours.

This large scale crowdsourcing cost The Guardian only £ 50 to rent temporary severs.

This job was impossible to do with the labor and skills of their own few journalists

CS Application to Journalism Cont’d

Good journalistic crowdsourcing takes into consideration the validity, quality, and ownership of the data journalists are accessing. When used effectively, it is a unique way to engage audiences and gather information that paints a more comprehensive picture of what’s going on in the world. 

Crowdsourced journalism showed its limits during the Boston bombing

 It was an iPhone photo that provided the clearest image of one of the suspects.

Yet Boston also showed the drawbacks to relying on crowdsourced information without verification: innocent men were falsely identified as suspects in the days after the bombing.

Good Journalistic Crowdsourcing

1. Your workers are unpaid, so make it fun2. Public attention is fickle, so launch

immediately 3. Speed is mandatory, so use a framework4. Participation will come in big burst, so

have servers ready. 5. Reward participants (recognition or

financial compensation for the person who comes up with the best solution)

6. What do you think?

How to Craft Good Crowdsourcing Campaigns

Howe, Jeff. “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.” Wired Magazine 14.06 (June 2006). http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html?pg=3&topic=crowds&topic_set= (accessed April 2015).

Akagi, Katie & Stephanie Linning. “Crowdsourcing Done Right.” Columbia Journalism Review (April 29,2013) http://www.cjr.org/data_points/crowdsourcing_done_right.php (accessed April 2015).

Alsever, Jennifer. “ What is Crowdsourcing?” CBS (March 7, 2007). http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-crowdsourcing/ (accessed April 2015).

Resources on Crowdsourcing

Anderson, Michael. “Four Crowdsourcing Lessons from The Guardian’s (Spectacular) Expenses-Scandal Experiment.” NiemanLab (June 23, 2009). http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/four-crowdsourcing-lessons-from-the-guardians-spectacular-expenses-scandal-experiment/ (accessed April 2015).

Kumar, Pavan. “The Power of Crowdsourcing.” http://www.slideshare.net/Pavankumar368/the-power-of-crowd-sourcing?next_slideshow=2 (accessed April 2015). Wikipedia. “About Wikipedia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About (accessed April 2015).

Resources on Crowdsourcing