#crowdsour

[peijia-blog]

Week 8: Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

The term ‘crowdsourcing’: how it is formed?

The term ‘crowd’ was used particularly as a term in which individual who self-establish of a common purpose, emotion or experience. However, organizations often use the context of ‘crowd’ to examine the collections of individuals engaged themselves in organizational purposes in order to construct competitive advantage. Therefore, crowdsourcing can be considered one of the strategic to influence the ability of an organization continuously create value to the firm (Prpic, Shukka, Kietzmann & Carthy 2014). Crowdsourcing consider as a practice of solving problems and provide localized information in order to strive for a common goal (What is Crowdsourcing, 2019). First step of crowdsourcing includes significant considerations that construct that how a crowd is formed. Then highlights the capabilities of a firm that need to establish to obtain and assimilate resources such as ideas, knowledge, expertise, time or funds from the crowd. The last step of crowdsourcing is to outlines the final decisions that the entrepreneur need to address to engage crowds effectively. In the past, people had to be physical to create the masses. However with Internet, people are able to create virtual groups because of their common preferences and interests which offer an immense opportunity to rethink and reinvent to improve organizational productivity (Sherman, 2011). 

Examples of Crowdsourcing

Undeniably, one of the most successful crowd-powered startups is Waze. Waze is an app which offer for users to report traffic jams and automatically gives directions for the best route to take. In addition, Waze also crowdsourced the information by measuring drivers speed to determine traffic jams and by request users to report if there any road closures to avoid frustration sitting in traffic. It’s consider as a distinguish app that proves a dedicated crowd is sometimes all a company needs which aims to improve quality of everyone’s daily driving(Kearns, 2015). 

On the other hand, even Samsung also realise the value of Crowdsourcing. Hence, what they seek is different from others which is innovative solutions for existing electronic products and technologies. Samsung also seek collaboration with other firms and interested individuals. In 2013, Samsung partnered with product development platform, Marbler to Crowdsource ideas on how they could utilise newly discovered patents from NASA. They provided users the opportunities to assist the company to create next product while generate a share of revenue along the way (Schoultz, 2016). As a conclusion, with the power of hundreds to thousands of creative minds throughout the world, microtasks can be performed simultaneously, and projects can be completed more quickly and cost effectively with the practice of crowdsourcing.

Introduction to Crowdfunding

The origin of crowdfunding, translated from the foreign crowding word, that is, public fundraising, is a “pre-consumption” model, which uses the form of “group purchase + pre-purchase” to raise project funds to the public with a modern way. Compared with traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is more open for funding a variety of new ventures, allowing individual founders of for profits, cultural or social projects or equity (Mollick, 2013). As long as it is a project that the public likes, the first fund can be obtained through crowdfunding, and the scale of the first fundraising will not be large, providing unlimited possibilities for more small businesses or creative people.Crowdfunding platforms collaborate an individual or entity in need of funding with community members willing to contribute cash. Although pessimists find it inexplicable, it has been consistently demonstrated that people worldwide have a philanthropic nature when it comes to causes in which they believe whether that’s an entrepreneurial product or service, disaster relief, an artist’s vision or something else entirely. Overall, crowdfunding is not just a practice to selling the idea of noble cause, but about the stories that make the cause worth contributing to (Finker, 2018).

Examples of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is an emerging fundraising measure that utilize the ease of websites or other Internet tools to raise capital for small businesses from the general public in order to accomplish their own business plans (Valancience & Jegelevicute 2013). Hence, Kickstarter is a platform used by general public who use Crowdfunding as the characteristics of the Internet and SNS to allow small entrepreneurs, artists or individuals to reveal their ideas to the public, in order to get everyone's attention and support, then to get the financial assistance needed (Harburg, Hui, Greenberg & Gerber, 2015). As a results,crowdfunding succeeds in integrating the traditional funding model with a modern way of driving business and welfare. While crowdfunding does not necessarily guarantee the longevity of a company, project or idea, it helps many individuals gain experience, mobilize communities and create relationships for other opportunities.

References

Finker, L 2018, What Crowdfunding means for Philanthropy, Executive Leadership & Philanthropy, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://lazarfinker.org/what-crowdfunding-means-for-philanthropy/>

Harburg, E, Hui, J, Greenberg, M, Gerber, E 2015, Understanding the effects of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Segal Design Institute, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6347/44b9f2be9cacd55c1ceb4902d4fe58b11def.pdf>

Kearns, K 2015, Great Examples of Crowdsource in the age empowered consumers, Tweak your biz, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers>

Mollick, E 2013, ‘The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 1 - 16.

Prpic, J, Shukla, P, Kietzmann, J, Carthy P 2014, ‘How to work a crowd: Developing crowd capital through crowdsourcing’, Business Horizons, vol. 58, Issue 1, pg. 77 - 85.

Schoultz, M 2016, How Brand Crowdsource for Continuos Ideas, Medium, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://medium.com/@mikeschoultz/how-brands-crowdsource-for-continuous-ideas-9409f62ca304>

Sherman, A 2011, How to use crowdsourcing techniques in your virtual team, Reuters, viewed 05 May 2019, <https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS405921270820110713>

Valancience, L & Jegeleviciute, S 2013, ‘Valuation of Crowdfunding: Benefits and drawbacks’, Economics and Management, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://www.ecoman.ktu.lt/index.php/Ekv/article/viewFile/3713/2499>

What is Crowdsourcing, 2019, Crowdsourcing Week, viewed 05 May 2019, <https://crowdsourcingweek.com/what-is-crowdsourcing/>

[teq-talks]

Social Gaming

Online gaming communities have very similar characteristics to social media communities in some ways. Both of which exist in a ‘virtual world’ meaning participants can engage anonymously. This often means people behave in a way they would not behave in the ‘real world’.  This may involve the use of vulgar or offensive language, the sharing of unpopular opinions, or abusing/starting fights with strangers. However, in the gaming world, it seems that more ‘tight-knit’ communities form because players regularly play with the same people and with the same persona. While there doesn’t appear to be any communal ‘codes of conduct’ on social media, except for those imposed from above, they do form in the gaming world.

While the gaming world seems - from the outside - to be entirely fiction, in a lot of ways, gamers connect more with those they game with, than most people do with people they engage with on social media platforms. This is likely because of the sheer amount of time they spend playing together but also because all online games have their own social networks which often contain smaller groups labelled ‘clans/guilds’. Generally, membership in these clans brings benefits, and this facilitates teamwork between clan members. Most clans have a leader who organises events and then the other members contribute their time to achieving these events which in turn benefit all members of the clan. This creates a higher level of accountability for gamers regarding their actions while online.  

EVE perhaps fosters even stronger online communities than other games because allows players to communicate with developers (Zwart and Humphreys 2014, p. 78). This means players have become heavily invested in the game, both physically and financially and this has big effects on their lives beyond their online persona. Take for example the way that EVE players are influenced by their peers while online, but also in their ‘real life’: in an article by Daily Mail UK Gamer James Carl tells how he was woken up by messages on his phone from his ‘alliance members’ telling him that his team’s ‘system’ was under attack. During this digital event, many of his alliance members rallied together, even taking days off work to unite with their team and defend their work. Because this gaming platform had allowed these gamers to connect, work as a team, develop goals and plans together, it infiltrated their real lives in ways that other social media wouldn’t - I don’t imagine many people would be willing to take a day off work in order to win a political debate on Facebook!

[historybizarre]

Events to research include:

German Students, Nazis stage nationwide book burnings

German government forces Jews to wear yellow stars

President Establishes War Refugee Board

Warsaw Ghetto Jews Revolt

[aliramblog-blog]

#5 CROWD SOURCING IN TIMES OF CRISIS

At some point in our social media lives, I am sure we’ve all come across a post that has someone asking for money. Sometimes it’s a friend trying to cover the cost of medical bills, and other times it could be an organization raiding money for a national crisis. It then usually tends to lead you to a GoFundMe page, with their hopes of individuals contributing to crowdfunding their cause, no matter what their reason is.

Crowd sourcing has become to be an important factor in times of crisis and has been made easier with social media and the tools that are available through an online presence. The standard community-level communication channels, that are around already have to purpose and ability to distribute information during a time of crisis, and with the use of social media the channels are able to be adapted to a new form and continue to distribute information in times of crisis.

The term crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe, a politician from Minnesota. He defined it as “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call” (Posetti 2012, p. 36).

The 2011 Queensland floods, was a key example of social platforms – Facebook and Twitter – playing an important role in this crisis and was also one of our main topics of this week’s lecture. The hashtag #qldfloods was used in over 35,000 tweets, that were sent during the disaster, and very quickly became an easy way for users to find information and used to “share breaking news of the latest event” (Liddy 2013, p. 1).

Twitter became a source for mainstream media both within Australia and overseas. Social media users around the world were sharing flood-related media resources. Whilst those close to the disaster were sharing their own experiences, as well as information and discussing the topic amongst other users (Liddy 2013, p. 1).

And now with how powerful social media has become – in particular Twitter – events can be organized more quickly, and with these events users are able to “find other who share their views and work together in disparate location to produce powerful sources of information” (Ford 2012, p. 33).

An example of this is the Manchester bombing, but more so the One Love Manchester, the benefit concert that saw Ariana Grande accompanied by Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Coldplay, Niall Horan and many more others come together to help raise money for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, which was established after the concert two weeks prior. The benefit concert raised more than 10 million pounds for the Emergency Fun, as throughout the performances, there were instructions on how to donate.

Both examples are important to show social media’s role in the crisis communication and emergency management. With these events still having similar ones happening to this day, it is important for regulatory bodies and emergency services teams have strategies that use both traditional and new communication technologies. With this it will help them to stay on top of what is happening during the times of crisis and pass on information that could save lives.

References:

Ford, H. (2012) ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, pp 33-39

Posetti, J. & Lo, P. (2012) 'The Twitterisation of ABCs Emergency & Disaster Communication'

Gritt, E 2017, ‘Ariana Grande: ‘we had a totally different show planned’, News.com.au, 5th June 2017, pg1

Liddy, M 2013, ‘How Twitter covered the Queensland floods’, ABC News, 26th April 2013, pg. 1.

[amanda-agnes]

I AM NOT A FAN, or am I?

Instead of looking up a proper dictionary for definitions or explanations, I actually found the definition from Urban Dictionary a lot more relatable in regards to fandom and fan activism. In simple terms, fandom is a group of people (or a cult of sleep-deprived people) who willingly spend their time obsessing over one or multiple comics, books, television shows, movies, video games, celebrities or even bands (Killer 2014). So if you like or have interest in something or someone, you are basically already considered a fan.

I AM A FAN

I, myself, is not a fan. But I guess I have been wrong all this while. I consider myself a fan of movies that I am interested in, especially those trilogies with prequels or sequels. What I would do after watching the first film is to buy all of the books and read them even before the production or release of the second film. I needed to know what happens after the first film and could not possibly wait until the movie is released. Some examples of books or movies I obsess over include The Hunger Game Trilogy, The Maze Runner series, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit Trilogy and Me Before You series. I always claim that I do not have the luxury of time to read as reading requires way much more time compared to watching the film, however, I still find myself being able to spare time to read (during my holidays that is). When I do read, I would be partially zoned out from the world, and spend hours binge reading.

If you think that is all there is to my movie obsessions, you are wrong. So after all the reading of the books and actually watching the movies, I would do something else and that is where the Internet comes in. I would search up Wikipedia, Fandom Wiki, reviews or articles etc. just to precisely know about every detail of the movie and make sure I do not miss out on any important information. Fandom, the One Wiki to Rule Them All is alike that of Wikipedia, just that it is mainly focused on everything about entertainment topics. To date, Fandom has over 400,000 Wikia communities and 200,000 unique users monthly (Nations 2018). The information on Fandom is crowdsoured by other hardcore fans like me, discussing literally every single detail from TV shows, movies, books, games, news stories, events, celebrities to characters.

Below are screengrabs of a particular character from the Lord of The Rings series by Fandom. It details out every single thing about the character which I am keen to know about.

(https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Arwen) 

Another interesting thing about reading the books and watching the movies is that you would find that the movies often stray away either a little or a lot from the books. So again, I would be reading about articles comparing the movie to that of the book via numerous websites. Below are some screengrabs comparing the differences between the Maze Runner books series to that of the movies.

(https://mazerunner.fandom.com/wiki/The_Maze_Runner_book_to_film_differences)

(https://www.cinemablend.com/new/10-Big-Differences-Between-Maze-Runner-Book-Movie-67300.html)

As a wrap, I do consider myself as a fan but not necessarily a hardcore one. And thanks to social media, it is able to create a networked platform for fans to communicate, discuss on a common topic or shared interest and exchange information.

References:

Nations, D 2018, Wikia's Fandom Is the Largest Entertainment Fan Website, LifeWire, viewed 20 May 2019, <https://www.lifewire.com/wikias-fandom-largest-fan-website-3486725>

Killer, J 2014, Fandom, UrbanDictionary, viewed 20 May 2019, <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fandom>

[iamspeedrunner]

Top Five Underrated Harley-Davidsons - Picking out underrated Harleys is tough sort of the moto equivalent of writing up the five least-attractive Playboy centerfold moles the five least-cute puppy breeds the five least-popular iced beverages at the Death Valley Golf Club in August. Even the most ignored Harleys have their own loyal and possibly violent contingents. But fearlessly tackling this type of project is why they pay me the big money. And thanks to the miracle of social media crowdsour... by @iamspeedrunner. Also, check out https://www.iamspeedrunner.com

[hashtagghana]

@HIREghana: The #Great #Ghana #FREE #Salary #Survey: #CALL for #Volunteers I assume that I do not need to convince any #Ghanaian about the #value of having a #full and #free #salary #survey! And we have #no_financial motivation for that - think of it as a crowdsour…https://t.co/ZMqDNVz5xL

[konstruktivenachrichten]

Im Supermarkt einfach schnell den Strichcode eines Lebensmittels mit dem Smartphone scannen und herausfinden, ob und wie gesund das Produkt ist - das will das Projekt Open Food Facts mit Hilfe einer eigenen Open-Source-App und auf Basis von Crowdsouring ermöglichen. Das wohl wichtigste Detail der App soll dabei eine Lebensmittel-Ampel sein.

[venusinorbit]

“The Immigrant Yarn Project,” which identifies itself as “the largest work of crowdsourced art in the country,” is on the second level of Fort Point until May 19, free and welcoming visitors every weekend, Friday to Sunday. The project displays works of art knitted and crocheted by more than 600 people across the country, in celebration of immigrants and immigration.

The display of these completed works is the end result, but the point of it all is in the doing: hundreds of people pitching in to create patches to be joined together to create a whole, as millions of immigrants have joined together to create a country. The project, envisioned by San Francisco artist Cindy Weil as the first public project of her nonprofit called Enactivist, was created in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

[loadigitalcreative-blog]

Nº5 Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

Years ago, we would listen to the radio or watch the TV to get an instant source of information about the accident.

Social media is not just a superficial world, dominated by celebrities. It is actually a really useful tool for communication in case of the crisis such as earthquakes, flooding or terror attacks. By citizen journalism, information about the accident can be easily spread and shared through many platforms, also can be directed to people who might be in the dangerous territory.  By use of hashtags, it is easy to navigate and understand what is happening. It is also crucial for our own safety.

Jeff Howe was the one who created the Crowdsourcing term. It can be explained as managed, focused crowds. What’s more, “it is when the company takes a job that was once performed by employees and outsourced it in the form of an open call to a large undefined group of people generally using the internet.” (Howe, 2008) Because of the progress of the internet, we are able to create the virtual crowd. What’s more, create groups (communities) with people who share the same interest as we do, even if they are on the other side of the planet.  

Ushahidi is a perfect example of the crowdsourcing.

 According to Bunting, in 2008 a group of bloggers in Kenya came up with an idea to create a crowdsourcing portal to track a “fast-moving crisis”. (2011) This site allows people to create a content and updates the online map with images and important information regarding the crisis. This site adds an impact on communities of the BP oil spill, also “irregularities in the Nigerian election and Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.” (Jeffery, 2011)

Crowdsourcing in times of the biggest disasters and accidents makes a positive impact and literally saves people’s lives. It is easy to navigate and monitor of what is happening and manage these emergencies with help of volunteers, food supplies, and first aid help.

REFERENCES:

Bunting, M. 2011. Crowdsourcing put to good use in Africa. Viewed on 29th of April. Accessed at: <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/19/crowdsourcing-good-use-in-africa>

Howe, J. 2008. Jeff Howe – Crowdsourcing. Viewed on 29th of April. Accessed at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0-UtNg3ots>

Jeffery, S. 2011.Ushahidi: crowdmapping collective that exposed Kenyan election killings. Viewed on 29th of April. Accessed at:<https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2011/apr/07/ushahidi-crowdmap-kenya-violence-hague>

[teq-talks]

“An Instagram With No 'Likes' Could Have A Big Impact On Mental Health”

Brittany Wong for Huffington Post reports: “The social media giant is testing ditching "likes" in Canada. It might be bad news for influencers, but experts say it could be good for our wellbeing”.

[iamparadoxic99]

you ever think about the concept of the scp foundation and the magnus institute existing in the same world like in the archive there are statements invoulving scp and i’m not exactly sure where i was going with this exactly considering my actual knowledge of the scp foundation itself is actually lacking, with me knowing less than i do actually know. so i don’t actually know how the foundation would interact with the institute at all...

but there are people out there who are into both, so they can do that sort of imagining for me if they want hooray for the interent and it’s ability to basically crowdsoure ideas, via the method of introducing an idea to someone, that might gets stuck in their head, until they create some sort of content for that idea. it’s a long, convoluted method of going about it, but i can’t be bother to think about this sort of stuff rn

[xanjero]

Google Adds Assistant Functionality to Waze in English for the US

#GoogleAssistant Integration comes to #Waze in the US -- #Xanjero

Google has finally added some of its essential Assistant abilities to crowdsouring app Waze for Android, intermingling the two more…

Even though Google acquired traffic navigation app Waze about six years ago in 2013, it’s functionalities have largely stayed apart from Google Maps and Google Assistant. But, in July, that began to change, with a cursory integration.

Google Assistant Integration…

[ourwitching]

Looking for a comfortable place to do research this summer? You may want to check out a crowdsour...

[startupmafia123-blog]

✅✅✅startupelfs: 👉 👉 👉 👉 Grow potatoes, peepers, and many plants at home without a hassle. https://t.co/buZeHDBtgg #crowdfunding #startupgenesis #potatoes #farm #aquaponics #farming #growyourself #eathealthy #healthyliving #startuplife #crowdsour… pic.twitter.com/xCQ8huHzKI

— StartUp Mafia (@startupmafia123) February 14, 2018