Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

What is Jeff Howe's Definition of Crowd Sourcing?

The basic idea of crowdsourcing is to tap into the collective intelligence of the public to complete larger business-orientated tasks that the company would either do itself or to a third-party provider.

What does the video believe is the key to successful crowd-sourcing?

The video suggested that the key to successful crowd-sourcing are the communities in which it is being done. He talked about how these communities are the 'building-blocks' of crowd-sourcing and shows how they can manage and create more content.

Why do "crowds" form on the internet? Are you part of an online crowd- if so which?

Crowds form on the internet due to a common shared interest with other people, which form small communities and websites to gather on. These communities then talk about these interest through forums, chatrooms and instant messaging.

What are the crucial terms in Jeff Howes idea of crowd-sourcing? why is this crucial?

• Open-call
• Undefined

These terms mean that the most qualified person to help may not be the best or most suitable to do it.

Name two reasons why this type of crowd-sourcing is now possible?

Crowd-sourcing is now available due to many reasons, the main one being the internet which has opened new communities. This leads to more people able to be connected in various communities, share ideas and create shared content.

Another reason is the availibility of new software such as Photoshop, which is a medium to create various content on that people have shared interests in.

How effective do you believe it to be?

I believe that this is really effective because the internet has been able to make crowds communicate almost instantaneously, with content being created by different users all the time.

What do you think is the motivation behind it?

I think the motivation behind for the purpose of people collaborating together to create the best pieces of content - of which they are interested in - of which they can be happy about.

Name three advantages and disadvantages of a crowd-sourcing?

• Information can be gathered quickly and easily for a very cheaper price.
• This can be used to get amateurs (or recreational) into the market that would be dominated by one company.
• It can bring communities together to create a piece of collaborative content.

• Crowd-sourcing could potentially not provide best quality content.
• The company would be putting a large amount of trust into a community to create this content, which may not entirely work out.
• Crowd-sourcing has to be suitable for what wants to be created, so therefore can't be used for everything.

A recent example of successful crowdourcing was run by Ford to create the first ever spectator-filmed commercial and was filmed using various cameras and mobile phones. Ford even chose 8 active members of their Facebook page and flew them down to Key West so that they could help film.