In this week’s Strategic Communication and Emerging Media
class we are taking a closer look at the global crowdsourcing movement. The term crowdsourcing is attributed to Jeff
Howe from back in the 2006 article, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”. In that article he described a new way of
sourcing many different people, the crowd, who are willing to help or work on
some kind of project. The premise is
that large numbers of people with sufficient time can produce a tremendous
amount of relatively low-cost manpower.
According to Darren Stevens, in his Hongkiat blog, “for the workers it
seems to level the playing field as most who want to participate can and do
without regard to age, education, and other factors that often limit in the
traditional workplace” (n.d.). Incidentally
the cost involved are typically one-time payments, prize pay-outs, and/or even
stock equity (Ha, 2017). In addition to
the low-cost manpower gained, these companies, organizations, or even
individuals can crowdsource to receive a much broader often global scope of
ideas, services, and products without the typical business influences of time
zone differences, labor laws, and/or payment concerns for different currencies
in those business transactions.
For this week’s
exploration of crowdsourcing I’d like to: list a few of the advantages and
disadvantages; briefly discuss the business model aspect of crowdsourcing; take
a closer look at one specific crowdsource site (Fiverr) and share a remarkable
success story from Fiverr. I’ll conclude
this week’s blog with a personal story and a look ahead to the future
of crowdsourcing in the digital world.
In regards to
advantages the biggest appear to be the sheer number of participants and the
overall diversity of them, as well as, the cost savings to the entity doing the
crowdsourcing. According to Top Ten
Reviews’, “The Best Crowdsourcing Sites of 2017” there are many numerous
benefits to crowdsourcing. “You can access the talents of people you don't
know, often in other states or countries. You can get a wide range of proposals
to choose from. Crowdsourcing often works more quickly and more cheaply than
traditional hiring methods. As the notion of hiring freelancers to do one-off
tasks grows, crowdsourcing websites will increase in popularity and utility”
(2016). In “Crowdsourcing as a Model for
Problem Solving”, author Brabham suggest yet another advantage to crowdsourcing
– the triple bottom line (2006). He
states that crowdsourcing “promotes the triple bottom line in business
operations. The triple bottom line
refers to People, Profits, and the Planet.
John Elkington came up with the phrase in his 1997 book, ‘Cannibals with
Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business’.” The basic concept is the company’s
responsibilities lie with its stakeholders rather than its shareholders. That means anyone who has an interest or is
somehow impacted by the actions of the company.”
There are also
disadvantages to crowdsourcing.
Interestingly enough the main disadvantage for crowdsourcing mirrors one
of the main advantages: cheap labor often results in a less credible product,
especially when compared to professional work. Professionals are paid for their
expertise, and experience, but labor such as crowdsourcing is often for
completing simple tasks. Stevens concurs that, “any task considered above
simple is risky for crowdsourcing” (n.d.).
Another disadvantage for crowdsourcing deals with the downward drive of
wages, and the subsequent removal of protection from/for workers that in some
cases could lead to exploitation.
Now let’s move on
to the business model aspect of crowdsourcing. Brabham (2006) calls crowdsourcing a
“distributed problem-solving model” in a web-based market. This is a pretty clear description of the
crowdsourcing movement from a business perspective. However, it should be noted there exist two
different types within that “distributed problem-solving model”. There is the demand-driven source type,
wherein workers are subject to the specific “demands” of the requestors, i.e.,
project type, deadlines, payment methods, etc.
Conversely, there is the supply-driven source model, in this setup the
workers “supply” the jobs and/or services that they are willing to complete and
list their fees for providing said services.
It is this supply-driven crowdsource aspect that I’d like to focus on a
bit more. These sites are often being
referred to as “gig sites” in a “gig economy”.
I’d like to share a bit more about the crowdsourcing “gig site”
Fiverr. Fiverr has been called the
freelance service site for the lean entrepreneur, read on and decide for
yourself if this is accurate branding.
According to the
Top Ten Reviews (2017), “Fiverr is the crazy quilt of crowdsourcing. You can
find just about any kind of product or service, all starting at $5.” However, unlike the majority of other
crowdsourcing (gig sites) websites, Fiverr hosts the freelancers who post their
services and price points, the customer(s) then search for one that meets their
needs. On Fiverr there are services
ranging from “serious business to simply bananas.” For five bucks, you could
purchase a professional resume, a voice-over, or even have someone write
targeted press releases. After searching
around this gig site I came across offers for $5 to: translate a document;
write a LinkedIn bio/profile; draft a motivational speech; and create a media
kit.
Overall the
products and services are divided into 12 major categories: graphics and
design, online marketing, writing and translation, video and animation, music
and audio, programming and tech, advertising, business, lifestyle, gifts, fun
and bizarre, and other. Each category is then broken down into subcategories.
For example, its business category includes virtual assistant, market research,
business plans, branding services, legal consulting, financial consulting,
business tips, presentations, and career advice.
Simply go to a
category, select a subcategory and then explore. If you already know precisely what you are
looking for you can use the search function.
Each freelancer profile shows what the freelancer offers and often
provides some sample work and lists the gig prices. Most of Fiverr's services
start at just $5, but many of these freelancers offer enhanced packages or
faster delivery for an increased price. You can check the sellers' ratings too
and then write your own freelancer review.
I’m not going to downplay it, this is a fun site to explore, although it seems that some of the services
offered might not be very ethical. For
example, you can have people endorse you on LinkedIn or get a guaranteed surge
in web traffic. It would appear “buyer
beware” is a necessary reminder.
Fiverr also provides
secure communications between buyer and seller and the gig site handles the
payment transactions. You can pay via PayPal, credit card or other electronic
payments.
So the difference
between this supply-driven gig site and the demand-driving models of other
crowdsourced sites is that there is no requirement to come up with a demand, a
project proposal and/or an offering of a prize or taking bids, businesses or
individuals can search for the product or service needed and simply select a
freelancer from the listing.
Earlier I
mentioned wanting to share a success story from the Fiverr archives. Here is the condensed story of Charmaine
Pocek, a 41-year-old resume writer and career consultant, from Houston,
Texas. This is how she went from
starting out on Fiverr writing resumes for $5 to earning a mid-level six-figure annual
income. She started using Fiverr in
2011:
Fiverr Tip from
Charmaine: "Provide exceptional customer service. Deliver something a little
extra than what the client asks for. Be in contact. I get so many orders, but
even a simple message saying, ‘Thank you so much for your order, I’ll be in
touch,’ goes a long way. Fiverr has introduced quick messaging where you don’t
have to type every word out, so for every order, even though all my orders are
due in seven to ten days, I tell them within 24 hours I received their order
and it will be delivered on time."
After searching
around in the various Fiverr categories and reading about Charmaine’s success story I was reminded
of a time in early 2001 when I was
serving as a Support Flight Commander for a small US Air Force squadron
stationed on an Italian Air Base. Our
flight created a new product for our community of 135 active military members
and their 100+ dependents. We called
this a community skills roster. We
encouraged everyone to share various skills, talents, hobbies that they
possessed that might be useful and needed by others in our community. We had folks sign up for various tasks from
editing school papers, to mowing yards, and from babysitting to automotive
repair work. As the list grew we saw an
additional benefit, the community became closer. There were no prices listed for any tasks,
simply a task and a contact name and number.
We figured folks could work out the details on their own. After working on this week’s assignment I can
only say I guess our concept was born premature. But this personal experience is precisely why
I can see the benefits to crowdsourcing.
So what does the
future hold for the crowdsourcing movement in the gig economy? According to Spigit, a San Francisco-based
provider of crowdsourcing, innovation management software, “the top objectives
of most crowdsourcing programs is not breakthrough products but rather
“creating a culture of innovation” and “increasing employee engagement”. So be it demand-driven or supply-driven type, the
web-based market of the “distributed problem-solving model” known as
crowdsourcing is definitely the “In Crowd” of the digital world.
Strategically Yours,
Autumn
** Bonus Share: In case
you’d like to see what Fiverr is all about please feel free to use my referral
link: https://www.fiverr.com/s2/61a79bd2e2
Work Cited:
Brabham,
D. (2008). “Crowdsourcing as a Model for Problem
Solving”. Retrieved on 14 February
Editorial
Staff. (2016). “The Best Crowdsourcing Sites of 2017”. Retrieved on 13 February 2017
Ha, A. (2017). “Loom Helps
Entrepreneurs Lure Freelance Developers with Equity”. Retrieved on 16 February 2017
from https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/16/loom/?ncid=rss.
Howe,
J. (2006) “The Rise of
Crowdsourcing”. Retrieved on 16 January
2017 from
Shin,
L. (2016). “How These 3 People Make 6 Figures A Year On
Fiverr”. Retrieved on 16
February 2017 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/05/31/how-these-3-people-make-6-figures-a-year-on-fiverr/#18bc57de3ee5.
Stevens,
D. (n.d.). “Crowdsourcing: Pros, Cons, and More”. Retrieved on 15 February 2017 from
Hello Autumn,
ReplyDeleteTo say that I truly enjoyed your blog is an understatement. I found the information to be informative and useful. I especially like Charmaine's story. It gives a niche market direction for crowdsourcing as an active income wage earner, something I had not even considered before I read your blog. The other point I thought you did well was to list potential resource issues for contributors that are maybe not so astute. I would like to share a point of view about the less advanced contributors. In many instances non-professional or laymen contributors who have enormous successes are attributed to the fact that the area they are contributing in or to is not their area of expertise or even any experience. "The open source software movement proved that a network of passionate, geeky volunteers could write code just as well as the highly paid developers at Microsoft or Sun Microsystems," (Howe.2006) As you mentioned in your blog, he first coined the term crowdsourcing in this article.
And also, I would interject that in terms of reached goals and objectives that if the seeker company is satisfied with the work accomplished and the project is solved in a satisfactory manner to the benefit of the seeker, then I endorse the prospects of average Joe logging in to see what is on the table and if they can take a crack at the problem.
Case and point: look at the benefits anyone could have if a professor of technology logged into a tech site to just see the problem. Say that tech person who by trade is just a professor for online classes who travels around in a Cozy Rosie. Now that person is Dr. Padgett. Suddenly I feel like crowdsourcing is a great ticket to solve problems from unexpected resources. The question as a seeker would be, "Did we find a resolution that is cost effective, useful, and that met our objectives?" If that answer is yes, then we pay the man or woman and move on to the next problem.
The community resource post was a great idea as well. I think small communities can benefit greatly from crowdsourcing, but one bad apple can spoil the whole project, a weakness in the population of contributors can be overcome to benefit the participants. Crowd sourcing is a relatively cheap means to get expensive answers to difficult problems, as long as the crowdsourcing doesn't turn into group think, we should be okay. I am glad I read your work, You are a very gifted writer that explains herself very well. I will seek your blog in the future to see what you think.
https://www.wired.com/2006/06/crowds/
https://www.academia.edu/963662/The_Promise_of_Idea_Crowdsourcing_Benefits_Contexts_Limitations