What is Crowdsourcing?
WHAT IS CROWDSOURCING?
Crowdsourcing is the practice of engaging a ‘crowd’ or group to achieve a common goal — often innovation, problem solving, or efficiency. Our crowdsourcing examples show it can take place on many different levels and across various industries. Thanks to our growing connectivity, it is now easier than ever for individuals to collectively contribute — whether with ideas, time, expertise, or funds — to a project or cause. This collective mobilization delivers benefits of crowdsourcing.
This phenomenon can provide organizations with access to new ideas and solutions, deeper consumer engagement, opportunities for co-creation, optimization of tasks, and reduced costs. The Internet and social media have brought organizations closer to their stakeholders, laying the groundwork for new ways of collaborating and creating value together like never before. The approach is being embraced:
“Crowds are a hit. Millions of people, connected by the Internet, are contributing ideas and information to projects big and small. Crowdsourcing, as it is called, is helping to solve tricky problems and providing localized information. And with the right knowledge, contributing to the crowd — and using its wisdom — is easier than ever.” – The New York Times
WHERE CAN CROWDSOURCING BE APPLIED?
Crowdsourcing touches across all social and business interactions. It is changing the way we work, hire, research, make and market. Governments are applying the benefits of crowdsourcing to empower citizens and give a greater voice to the people. In science and health care, it can democratize problem solving and accelerate innovation. With education, it has the potential to revolutionize the system, just as crowdfunding is currently challenging traditional banking and investing processes. It’s a 21st-century mindset and approach that can be applied in many areas and many ways to:
- Accelerate Innovation
- Share Ideas
- Reinvent Business Models
- Co-Create
- Engage Consumers or Citizens
- Reinvent Work Models
- Save Cost
- Increase Efficiency
- Reinvent Financial Models
What can be crowdsourced? The short answer is, a collaborative or crowd-centric approach can be applied to everything. Take LEGO, for example. Today it is acknowledged as a successful global brand. Yet in 2004 it was heading for bankruptcy. LEGO’s turnaround came from turning to its fans and loyal supporters through product co-creation initiatives, which were then vetted by a wider audience through crowdfunding. Here are further examples of crowdsourcing in ten business sectors/industries where it has had significant impact and offers huge potential:
CROWDSOURCING & THE FUTURE DYNAMICS OF BUSINESS
A very recent development has stemmed from the convergence of crowdsourcing, the gig economy, artificial intelligence, and Web3 built on blockchain. Crowdsourcing often requires crowds of gig economy workers to provide information or complete tasks. Their input has to be verified for any payments to be made from a centralized source. Payment can now be automated through smart contracts, with payment triggered by receipt of data that represents task completion, confirming when predetermined terms and conditions have been met. This transparency creates trustless transactions in which all stakeholders know the terms under which payment will be definitely made.
Beyond simple gig economy opportunities, the uses of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, or DePINs, as they have been named, can extend to running major city infrastructure on a smart city basis, including the automated crowdsourcing of data to monitor and control city energy usage, water supplies, and transport systems. Use the link for a more detailed explanation of this major advance in problem solving.
So how can this phenomenon work for organizations? The benefits of crowdsourcing as a work model, financial model, and business model are here to stay. Leveraging collaborative practices and tools leads to disruptive business implications and transformative innovations. If existing enterprise are not prepared to adapt and embrace this new opportunity they will be disrupted, as our crowdsourcing examples demonstrate. Knowledge and understanding of collaborative business practices will be a required skill for C-level suite executives and entrepreneurs.