Here’s the Catch

Crowdsourcing is not an ad hoc process, and not all tasks lend themselves to crowdsourcing.

To yield the best results, productive crowdsourcing requires time,  infrastructure, and dedicated resources all applied to the right task. Certain conditions must be met, and rules must be applied in order to distinguish crowdsourcing from unmoderated mob-driven groupthink. While the ultimate aim of crowdsourcing is to tap a particular group’s wisdom, creative potential, judgement, or opinion and channel it toward the successful completion of a task, crowdsourcing is not as simple as getting a bunch of people together to create content, nor is it the equivalent of an online suggestion box.

Context

Crowdsourcing generally takes place within the context of a community, and communities are most often organized around shared passions.

Method

Second only to the obvious challenges of identifying and assembling the right community, the key to tapping crowds lies in developing and deploying the right set of strategies and tools to utilize those members who are passionate about individual subjects, but who may only have limited time or resources available to create content.

Modularity

Modularity is also a necessity. In order to bring a lot of people together to work on something, that thing must easily lend itself to being broken apart into what are referred to as as Human Intelligence Tasks (or HITs).

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