First things first, what does Crowdsourcing mean? Check out this definition of Crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing can be considered a new model of problem solving as it allows for ways of solving problems and achieving goals that were not easily accessible before the internet. In particular, the recent explosion of social media has changed the way people engage online. This is true for businesses also.

There are a variety of companies that have moved into this space, devising new ways to use the ‘crowd’ to focus on different tasks and deliver solutions.

Here are a few of them:

UserTesting: This company offers affordable website usability testing. Importantly, the service is easy to use.

CrowdSPRING: These specialise in Logo and Web Design. The client posts a project and states a price and member creatives pitch custom designs for the client to choose from.

Tongal: Their website states that “Tongal allows businesses to activate a global community to procure and distribute a diverse selection of high-quality content”. They specialise in video.

Interestingly, the name Tongal is an anagram of Galton (Sir Francis Galton), an English statistician who observed that when guessing the weight of an ox, the average of the crowd’s guesses was more accurate than any one individual. Hence, the wisdom of the crowd.

NamingForce – Here people contribute names to all kinds of things and the names can be voted up or down. The winner gets paid. I particularly like the submission ‘Pride and Groom‘ for the name of an upmarket pet store!

Starting a Crowdsourcing project

Every project is different, but here are some features to bear in mind:

1. You need a ‘crowd’, or access to an online community.
2. Connect with your readers, fans or visitors – projects work best when the task is aligned with their motivation to participate.
3. The company, or initiator, must be open to new ideas and ways of doing things.
4. A system for vetting the ideas or results is required.
5. Ensure it’s easy to use.
6. Keep the task, or requirement, quite specific though not so narrow that there’s no scope for creativity.
7. Use in addition to your staff, not as a replacement.
8. Avoid exploiting the ‘crowd’ or any possible perception that the ‘crowd’ is being exploited.
9. To this end, maintain communication with your collaborators and give feedback.

What’s your favourite example of a crowdsourcing project?

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