ECOmmerce

ECOmmerce: Leveraging Electronic Commerce for Global Ecological Benefit

Crowdsourcing: Some Background

A very interesting article in, The Economist, dated September 6th – 12th, 2008 - Technology Quarterly section on pages ten and eleven - provides a historical perspective and current background on crowdsourcing, how it is being used, and what seems to work and not work. The Economist can be found online at http://www.economist.com/.

First, let us take a look at where the term – crowdsourcing – originated. Jeff Howe, coined the term of crowdsourcing in an article in Wired in 2006, he defined it as “the act of taking the job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.” Now, let us get a bit of historical perspective on an early application of this approach. The Brits were at it early, in 1714 the British government established the Longitude prize - a cash prize - for a simple and practical way to determine the position of ships at sea. Instead of funding a single research scientist to solve the problem, it essentially outsourced the job to the public. Britain was definitely waaay ahead of its time.

Fast Forward: How Is Crowdsourcing Being Used In The Age of the Internet?

With the power of the Internet, crowdsourcing can be a cheap and easy approach to explore all sorts of unexpected areas. For starters, probably the best-known example out there is Wikipedia. As most everyone knows, at least those reading this blog, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia written and edited by users and is purported to have 80% quality of content. Another interesting example is how the Library of Congress asked users of Flickr, a popular photo-sharing site, to identify unknown people in its old photo collections. A final example shows the power of crowdsourcing and the exposure that can be brought to bear in unexpected ways. “Wanted for War Crimes,” a website put together by Aegis Trust, an anti-genocide campaign group, lets users report sightings of war criminals implicated in the Darfur conflict and mark them on Google Maps.

How about uses for commercial application? A survey of marketing bosses conducted by the Marketing Executives Networking Group found that 62% have used crowdsourcing in some source. Makes good sense, asking the public for ideas is much cheaper than hiring consultants or doing market research. In addition, churches and governments are using this approach to stay connected with members as a way of showing that they are listening and gaining their involvement in current issues.

Wow, Is There No End to the Use of Crowdsourcing?

With the power and potential highlighted in the examples described in this blog, is there no end to the use of crowdsourcing? Well, not so fast, limitations are beginning to surface as the idea spreads. Companies that have sought to use this approach for product design are now beginning to be concerned about copyright infringement and ideas that might have been stolen from elsewhere. Sounds like cost reduction and creativity might not be as easy as it appears on the surface. Also, crowdsourcing seems to work best for volunteer efforts. People do not seem willing to contribute their volunteer effort for someone else’s profit. Hence, Wikipedia’s non-profit organization may be a key to its success.

Let the Mind Wander

This story is from the Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/09/1194329456167.html. This effort and story began when Amazon.com made available its Amazon Mechanical Turks site for investigating high resolution photographs to help in the search for the adventurer, Steve Fossett. This experimental online investigation covered 44,000 kilometers where the search had been taking place on the ground. During a two month period this site drew 50,000 volunteers from around the world that pored over photos to help aide in the recovery effort. Best efforts not withstanding, the online search proved fruitless and Amazon abruptly ended the exercise with little notice and only brief commentary.

Although this experiment did not provide the hoped for results, it clearly highlights the potential of how similar efforts might be conducted in the future. Let the mind wander and think of how crowdsourcing might be used in the future to serve the environment. One can readily think of supporting aid to areas struck by natural disaster, investigating cases of callous environmental degradation, and of applying ideas from around the globe to develop solutions and foster community.

Going Forward
Once again, I am most interested in hearing your thoughts on how we can create a future that furthers commerce in innovative ways and is environmentally sustainable.


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