CrowdSourcing

CrowdSourcing in short is to let the crowd to provide the information for a company. Lets have a brief look on the pros and cons about it

Perceived benefits of crowdsourcing include:

1. Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
2. Payment is by results or even omitted.
3. The organization can tap a wider range of talent than might be present in its own organization.
4. By listening to the crowd, organizations gain first-hand insight on customer desires.
5. The community may feel a brand-building kinship with the crowdsourcing organization, which is result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

(Quick to gather information, Bigger perspective of information, Low till none payment for the info, Higher interaction between company and users)

Some possible pitfalls of crowdsourcing include:

1. Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.
2. Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, global language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
3. Below-market wages or no wages at all.Barter agreements are often associated with crowdsourcing.
4. No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced employees.
5. Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
6. Susceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts.

( Info overload, No money no motivation, Dependant on users, Quality of work difficult to be maintained)

Suggested Ways

1. Crowds should operate within constraints.To harness the collective intelligence of crowds, there need to be rules in place to maintain order.
2. Not everything can be democratic.Sometimes a decision needs to be made, and having a core team (or single person) make the ultimate decision can provide the guidance necessary to get things done and prevent crazy ideas and groupthink from wreaking havoc on your product.
3. Crowds must retain their individuality.Encourage your group to disagree, and try not to let any members of the group disproportionately influence the rest.
4. Crowds are better at vetting content than creating it.It is important to note that in most of the above projects, the group merely votes on the final product; they do not actually create it (even at Cambrian House, where the group collaborates to create the product, individuals are still creating each piece on their own and the group votes on whose implementation of an idea is best).

( User can only participate in giving some but not all information, Some feature still have to be maintained by Admin to maintain quality info, Among admins must have their own ideas on the project and not just follow the person in charge, Users can rate the final work but not all their ideas must be dealt with)



Pros and Cons taken from Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
Suggested way taken from:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/crowdsourcing_million_heads.php


Please leave your thoughts about it, thanks....