crowdsourcing

crowdsourcing, a framework that brings together a large and decentralized group of people for gathering data, solving a problem, or addressing a challenge. It typically occurs via digital platforms—including smartphone apps, social media, commercial software, and connected devices that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT)—that enable interaction and data collection.

In many cases, participants are volunteers; in others, they may be paid for their services or receive a prize. The concept of crowdsourcing is based on the idea that a diverse group of participants can often achieve better results, more efficiently, than a smaller and more homogenous pool of contributors.

The benefits of crowdsourcing include the ability to improve quality, solve complex problems faster, and lower the cost of a project by leveraging the skills of a vast group of people. Major companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, General Mills, Samsung, and Airbnb have used this technique for various purposes, including naming products, developing and deciding on new flavours for foods, and collecting images and videos that can be used to promote the brand.

The idea of using a group to solve a problem is centuries old. Kings have used the concept to build better ships, governments have harnessed it to improve navigation, and companies have relied on it to develop logos, labels, and products. The term crowdsourcing dates to 2006, when two editors of Wired magazine, Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, coined the phrase to describe the use of the Internet to spawn and connect ideas.

Most crowdsourcing projects revolve around four core concepts: gaining wisdom or knowledge through problem solving; creating new content, such as through wikis (digital pages and publications edited and managed by their audience); voting on policies or people; and crowdfunding, which involves raising money for various purposes, usually by collecting small amounts from a large pool of people. Commercial tools and software exist to facilitate crowdsourcing, though many organizations have designed their own crowdsourcing platforms.

The term crowdsourcing is partially derived from the word outsourcing, but crowdsourcing is not outsourcing, though the two concepts occasionally overlap. Outsourcing generally involves employing a specific person or group for accomplishing a task outside the normal sphere of a business or organization. Crowdsourcing, on the other hand, is typically more anonymous or nonspecific. It is similar to open-source development, which is often used to build software components. Linux and Mozilla Firefox are both examples of open-source software.

One of the most famous examples of crowdsourcing in the business world was a $1 million (U.S.) prize offered by online streaming service Netflix in 2006 for a computer algorithm that could improve movie recommendations for viewers. The company made large amounts of anonymous viewer data available and then collected more than 50,000 entries. It eventually awarded a “Netflix Prize” to a group of researchers, though it never implemented the winning algorithm.

A different example of crowdsourcing occurred in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a company named Kinsa Health collected anonymous data from its IoT-connected body thermometers to identify infection patterns. It shared the data with health authorities in the United States so that they could better understand how the virus was spreading. The same system is used to track influenza and other illnesses.

Crowdsourcing marketplaces also exist. One example is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), which allows organizations to outsource parts of tasks and projects. Crowdsourcing participants, referred to as crowdworkers, can earn money for tasks as varied as data validation and research to sorting images for machine learning and writing product descriptions.

Crowdsourcing offers many possible benefits to consumers and companies alike. It is often used for generating consumer reviews of products and services—for restaurants, hotels, gyms, plumbers, and even physicians—and can also leverage social media to solicit ideas, opinions, or votes about a new product or service. In fact, some companies now use crowdsourcing for brainstorming ideas and addressing product challenges in a broader way. For example, IKEA created a digital platform called Co-Create IKEA by which the public and university students could submit ideas for product improvements and new types of furniture; it offered financial rewards for any ideas it targeted for development. Similarly, BMW created a Crowd Innovation Platform “to tap into the swarm intelligence of internal and external innovation crowds.” In one “innovation contest,” those submitting the most promising designs for improving the luggage compartments of BMW vehicles received a financial reward as well as an invitation to its engineering plant in Munich to see how their ideas might work in practice.

There are some limitations and inherent risks related to crowdsourcing. For one, results are limited to the group that is participating in a project. This means that results can be skewed because of a lack of neutral input, and ideas can result in subpar and inaccurate results and conclusions. In some cases, privacy concerns may exist, and conflicts can ensue about who owns an idea. Sorting through input and information from participants can also require significant time and resources.

Not every task or project is suited to crowdsourcing. For instance, certain topics or tasks are too sensitive or involve trade secrets. There can also be a risk of losing control of critical information. As a result, crowdsourcing often remains a tool best suited to niche problems and specific situations.