Let's dive in:Crowdsourcing refers to when organisations outsource knowledge, work, ideas and other forms of input from Internet or social media users. Simple enough, right? But you're probably still wondering how organisations do this …
aren't you?The answer: There are
many ways they do it — some you might even have participated in yourself.
One of the best-known organisations that crowdsources information — in what they call an
'open collaboration' — is
Wikipedia.
We also see an example of crowdsourcing when brands ask audiences to submit their ideas for products they would like the brand to create. A brand that is quite famous for this is LEGO. The popular brand launched its
LEGO IDEAS platform in
2014 — allowing its loyal fans to contribute their creative ideas for the brand's products.
Another popular example is the navigation application
Waze. Like any navigation application, Waze helps you to find your way to any location that you search for.
However, what sets this app apart is that it uses
crowdsourcing to gather any information that may be useful to notify you of your journey from other app users like:
- traffic conditions
- road maintenance
- accidents
- police traps
- roadblocks
- speed camera locations, and
- weather conditions.
What are some examples of crowdsourcing that you have come across? Let us know in the comments section below.
Keen to be clued up on some more social media terms? Then be sure to read our article, What is a crawler — in 200 words or less?
*Image courtesy of Canva