Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing

Summary

1) What's Crowdsourcing ?

2) Example: Elance

3) What are the positives and negatives sides of Crowdsourcing ?

4) References

What's Crowdsourcing ?

It's a word that has been used by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article "The Rise of Crowdsourcing". It means giving an open call to a large group of people to give contributions.

Example: Elance

Who’s Elance ?

Elance is the world’s leading online talent marketplace. It helps companies hire and manage professionals online to get work done and grow their businesses.

How does Elance use Crowdsourcing platforms to help skilled freelancers reach international markets ?

The presence of Elance on Facebook (5817 fans), on Twitter (2990 followers) and many other social media websites is significant and is increasing day-by-day.

• Elance has 43 press releases from 2004 till now.

• Elance has 6 recognitions:

- Better Business Bureau Reliability Certified- Forbes “Best Of The Web,” 2003- iSource “iSource 100” Top Companies Transforming

Supply and Demand Chains, 2003 - CNET Webware 100, 2009- Supply and Demand Chain Executive 100, 2005 - AlwaysOn “AO 100 Top Private Companies,” 2003

Elance with its 30000 jobs posted everyday, 100000 active experts and its 250,000,000$ earnings per day, harness the “wisdom of the crowd” to offer quick cost-effective solution to many companies. It’s called “collective intelligence”.

Elance uses media coverage to create a better image for its company:

What are the positives and negatives sides of Crowdsourcing ?

Positives Negatives

It helps the companies to be near the customers and to respond better to their desires.

Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.

Explore problems quickly and at a little cost.

Below-market wages or no wages at all.

Regroup a wider range of talent in its organization.

Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers.

The crowd is paid in terms of results. No written contracts and non-disclosure agreements.

Brand-building kinship and sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Lack of monetary motivation, few participants, lower quality of work (lack of experience), global language barriers, difficulty managing many crowdsourced workers.

ReferencesPictures:

http://newvaluestreams.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/crowdsource.jpg

http://help.hover.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/crowdsourcing2.jpg

http://www.childrensministryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/crowdsourcing-jeff-howe.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/14/93136022_25afa7e458_o.jpg

http://evertb.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/crowdsourcing2.jpg

http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/PHP-Development-is-the-Easiest-Way-for-a-Developer-to-Make-Money-2.jpg

Websites:

http://www.elance.com/

http://wikipedia.com