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Human Computation through crowdsourcing has been an important research area for a
lot of companies. The main objective is to solve tasks that computers cannot do alone,
by using human intelligence. Crowdsourcing presents us the most effective way of
having a large amount of work done in a short amount of time. In this approach, a huge
amount of tasks are processed into a software, which in turn is sent to a crowd of
workers who complete the task. It is generally defined as the process of obtaining
required content through contributions from a group of people. This trend is mostly
available online as it is easy to get workers and process the work online. The workers
involved here are generally volunteers or part-time independent contractors. This method
not only involves division of labour for tedious tasks split for a crowd-based outsourcing
but also to specific requests like crowdfunding and searching solutions for answers. It
can be of great use in astronomy, voting, search engine evaluation, software testing,
image processing, document processing. There is a huge scope of crowdsourcing in
artificial intelligence. The system can be trained using different responses from different
people for a particular task. It is of great importance in developing speech recognition
systems as they rely mostly on the common human responses for general problems. ECommerce websites can use this to improve their search results and also get proper
recommendations. They can test whether the new products are added to the right
categories and ensure there is no mismatch of products.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chap No
TITLE
Page No
INTRODUCTION
CLASSIFICATION
TYPES OF CROWDSOURCING
3.1 Crowdfunding
6
11
13
18
3.2.3 Crowdsource
23
3.3 Crowdvoting
27
CONCLUSION
28
REFERENCES
29
LIST OF FIGURES
FIG. NO.
FIG. TITLE
PAGE NO
3.1
Kickstarter Campaign
3.2
IndieGoGo Campaign
3.3
Tilt Campaign
3.4
MicroVentures Campaign
10
3.5
Mturk Homepage
15
3.6
Mturk Qualifications
16
3.7
Mturk HITs
17
3.8
UHRS Login
20
3.9
UHRS Marketplace
21
3.10
UHRS Reports
22
3.11
Crowdsource Workstation
24
3.12
Crowdsource Homepage
25
3.13
26
3.14
Threadless
27
CROWDSOURCING
1. INTRODUCTION
The word crowdsourcing was coined in 2005 by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson,
editors at wired magazine. They represented it as an act of a company or institution
taking a function that was once performed by the employees and then outsourcing it to an
undefined network of people in the form of an open call. It became a popular online,
distributed-problem solving and production model. Crowdsourcing has become
fundamental to the everyday working of many popular internet sites and also, to some
extent, offline workflows. The internet provides a particularly good venue for
crowdsourcing since individuals tend to be more open in web-based projects where they
are not being physically judged or scrutinized and thus can feel more comfortable
sharing. This ultimately allows for well-designed artistic projects because individuals are
less conscious, or maybe even less aware, of scrutiny towards their work. In an online
atmosphere, more attention can be given to the specific needs of a project, rather than
spending as much time in communication with other individuals. The problems solved
by crowdsourcing can be huge, ranging from huge tasks like processing users sentiments
on twitter on a particular topic like the elections to small tasks finding restaurants near a
given place. The process starts by selecting a vendor. Next, the objective is established.
Now the crowd is engaged into the project. The results obtained are measured and then
deployed. Surveying has also become a lot easier with the help of a large amount of
crowd always ready. The time is greatly reduced to process the results of the survey.
Crowdsourcing is being used in innovative ways by leading companies in every industry.
Various data tasks, big or small, that are typically handled by a companys internal team
may be given to a crowd for review.
An essential function of crowdsourcing is that production capability is scalable to
millions of tasks. Crowdsourcing can either take an explicit or an implicit route. Explicit
crowdsourcing lets users work together to evaluate, share and build different specific
tasks, while implicit crowdsourcing means that users solve a problem as a side effect of
something else they are doing. With explicit crowdsourcing, users can evaluate particular
items like books or webpages, or share by posting products or items. Users can also
build artefacts by providing information and editing other people's work. Implicit
crowdsourcing can take two forms: standalone and piggyback. Standalone allows people
to solve problems as a side effect of the task they are actually doing, whereas piggyback
DEPT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(AUTONOMOUS)
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
2. CLASSIFICATION
There are eight dimensions involved in the development of a crowdsourcing system.
Combining inputs:
In this step, the inputs obtained from different batches of the results are combined to
generate a proper solution to the problem. This process is very important while
generating content. One batch develops the content and the other one has to check
whether it follows the rules of the existing content. Matching of results can also be done
during categorizing products into different places on the same site.
DEPT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(AUTONOMOUS)
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
How to evaluate?
Software is developed to evaluate the results of the inputs. Various testing mechanisms
are used to do this. The moderator is responsible to check the results at frequent intervals
during the evaluation. He gives a pre-defined set of requirements to the users on how the
work is to be done.
Nature of collaboration:
The users should be able to collaborate properly in order to maintain a proper balance on
the project. There should be a proper understanding on the behalf of both the content
generators and testers on what they are doing and how it will help the project.
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
3. TYPES OF CROWDSOURCING
Crowdsourcing is done through several ways like crowd-funding, micro-tasking, crowdvoting.
Benefits:
The crowdfunding campaigns often get huge financial gains. The profile of the producer
boosts when his project is compelling and gives him a good reputation. They can show
that there is a market for their project, if it receives a lot of backing. The involvement of
audiences through forums is also beneficial to the creators. They can get a lot of
feedback, negative and positive, regarding the project and thus helps them build the
project in a better way.
Barriers:
Failure to generate significant amount of interest in the public regarding the project may
seriously impact the reputation of the creators and the project itself. Interactive Digital
Media developers and content producers are reluctant to publicly announce the details of
a project before production due to concerns about idea theft and protecting their IP from
plagiarism. The public is also afraid if the project might turn out to be a scam, if it looks
too good to be true.
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
fundraising goal and it keeps the entire amount regardless of whether they meet their
goals. In All or Nothing (AON) type, the company doesnt keep anything until the goal is
achieved.
Equity Crowdfunding:
Equity crowdfunding is the offering of securities in a business to a group of people for
investment. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial
enterprise, it is often subject to securities and financial regulation. Equity crowdfunding
is also referred to as investment crowdfunding and crowd investing. Equity
crowdfunding is a mechanism that enables broad groups of investors to fund startup
companies and small businesses in return for equity. Investors give money to a business
and receive ownership of a small piece of that business.
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Kickstarter:
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
IndieGoGo:
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Tilt:
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
MicroVentures:
10
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
3.2 Microwork:
Microwork is a crowdsourcing platform in which there is a series of small tasks which
together comprise a large unified project, and are completed by many people over the
Internet. Microwork is considered the smallest unit of work in a virtual assembly line.
Microtasking:
Microtasking is the process of splitting a job into its component microwork and
distributing this work over the Internet. Since the inception of microwork, many online
services have been developed that specialize in different types of microtasking. Most of
them rely on a large, voluntary workforce composed of Internet users from around the
world.
Uses:
Importance:
Microtasking services, as they are implemented currently, allow their workers to work
from home. Workers complete tasks on a voluntary basis; other than with time-sensitive
jobs like call centres, they choose which jobs to complete and when they complete them.
Workers can work from anywhere in the world and receive payment directly over the
Internet. Because workers can reside anywhere in the world, microwork can provide job
opportunities with large Fortune 500 companies and many smaller companies for people
living in poverty who would otherwise not be able to make a living wage. Through
services like Samasource, work and wealth are distributed from companies in developed
countries to a large volume of families in poverty, especially women and youth who
would otherwise not be able to generate income.
For employers, microtasking services provide a platform to quickly get a project online
and start receiving results from many workers at the same time. The services offer large
workforces which complete tasks concurrently, so large volumes of small tasks can be
completed quickly. Furthermore, since each task is discretely contained and tasks are
usually simple in nature, each individual worker does not have to be fully trained or have
complete knowledge of the project to contribute work. Under United States tax law,
workers are treated as independent contractors, which means employers do not have to
DEPT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(AUTONOMOUS)
11
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
withhold taxes, and they only need to file a form 1099-MISC with the Internal Revenue
Service if a given worker earns more than $600 per year. Workers are responsible for
paying income taxes, including self-employment tax that would otherwise be paid by
their employer.
Workers:
The workers doing microwork are independent contractors and are not treated as
employees of the company. They are not eligible for any benefits like health insurance
and retirement benefits. As the project is huge, workers have a little idea of where their
work is actually going to be implemented. Their basic pay rate is less than two dollars
per hour on an average. Because global services outsource work to underdeveloped or
developing regions, competitive pricing and task completion could result in the lower
wages. The San Francisco-based company, CrowdFlower, has facilitated outsourcing
digital tasks to countries with poverty to stimulate their local economies.
12
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
attract a high number of employees and increase performance, rates are higher. If there is
more flexibility in completing the task, the rates are lower. Payments in Mechanical Turk
are made in cooperation with Amazon Payments.
13
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Homepage:
14
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
HITs:
15
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Qualifications:
16
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
17
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
strongly satisfies an unlikely intent. A Fair page addresses the intent of at least one
percent of searchers.
5.) Bad
In addition to being useful to almost no one and not satisfying user intent, this rating
applies to a web page that uses spam techniques or misleadingly provides content
from other sites, as well as to parked domains and pages that attempt to install malware.
A Bad page addresses the intent of less than one percent of searchers.
The document goes into some detail on additional ratings like Detrimental, which
applies (in part) to web documents that display adult-only content, and No Judgment
for pages that cant be accessed for a variety of reasons.
There also have other tasks like judging and categorizing queries, identifying whether the
page has inappropriate content, judging documents and mapping queries to search terms.
18
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Login:
19
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Marketplace:
20
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Reports:
21
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
3.2.3 Crowdsource:
CrowdSource is the industry leader in a multi-billion dollar market, providing clients
with on-demand access to a skilled and scalable workforce. They manage crowd-based
talent to deliver content, moderation and transcription solutions to enterprise clients
worldwide. They have a 24/7 access to thousands of workers on demand. They specialize
in writing and editing product descriptions for companies like overstock and staples.
They also have other tasks like product attribute categorization, website categorization
and classifying images. They work through amazon mechanical turk, odesk and their
own workstation. The workers can get paid through amazon payments, paypal and odesk.
The best part of this site is that the workers signing in through paypal receive daily
payments.
Working:
1. Workers are trained and tested before they start the tasks.
2. The workers can only view the tasks for which they have achieved qualification.
3. Each task has an efficient and proper worker interface. Clear instructions and
efficient UI's increase throughput and maintain quality.
4. There are smart quality controls that ensure the work is correct. The work done is
constantly checked by trusted reviewers before it is sent to the client.
5. There are various performance based rewards and incentives for workers.
22
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Workstation:
23
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Homepage:
24
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Work History:
25
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
Fig.3.14 Threadless
Threadless.com is a website where users upload their own designs. The design is then
scored on a scale of 1 to 5. If there is a good rating, then they start printing the design on
the t-shirt and the user can purchase once its done.
26
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
4. CONCLUSION
Crowdsourcing has the potential to be a great problem-solving mechanism for
government and non-profit use. Crowdsourcing systems provide researchers the ability to
gather a large amount of data that they might not get access to locally, which in turn
improves the quality of work. The buyers of crowdsourcing gain a lot by getting tasks
done at a cheap price and in a short amount of time. They dont have to look for
employees. It is more convenient and gives a lot of value for their money spent. They get
improved quality and productivity. They get proper feedback for their project. The
crowdsourcing participants in turn get high cash compensations. They get flexible work
hours. They enhance the professional portfolio of the worker. Researchers also get a
good platform for innovation through crowdsourcing. Markets can be studied better by
getting direct opinions from the people. Today, crowdsourcing has transferred mainly to
the Internet. The Internet provides a particularly good venue for crowdsourcing since
individuals tend to be more open in web-based projects where they are not being
physically judged or scrutinized and thus can feel more comfortable sharing. This
ultimately allows for well-designed artistic projects because individuals are less
conscious, or maybe even less aware, of scrutiny towards their work. In an online
atmosphere, more attention can be given to the specific needs of a project, rather than
spending as much time in communication with other individuals.
27
MREC
CROWDSOURCING
5. REFERENCES
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/
IndieGoGo: https://www.indiegogo.com/
Tilt: https://www.tilt.com/
MicroVentures: https://microventures.com/
Amazon Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
Universal Human Relevance System: https://prod.uhrs.playmsn.com/
Crowdsource: http://www.crowdsource.com/
Threadless: https://www.threadless.com/
28
MREC