Part II

Looking at the Different Forms of Crowdsourcing

Five Distinct Ways to Go Crowdsourcing

Crowdcontests: Keep a job as an undivided, single task and give the job to a single person to complete. Because you rely heavily on that single person, you want the best possible person to do the work. Let the crowd compete for your job by asking crowd members to submit their best work. Choose the best submission and reward the person who did it.

Macrotasks: Divide a job into large pieces that each require specific, specialist skills. Give each of these large pieces to a crowd member who has that specific skill. Manage the process as you go, and pay the workers.

Microtasks: Divide up your job into small, straightforward tasks to engage more of the crowd and get your job done more quickly. Judge each submission and accept those that are properly done, without having to first review the abilities of potential workers or interview them, then pay the crowd members who work for you.

Self-organised crowdsourcing: Let the crowd decide how to divide a job. Offer a reward for the person or group who does the job best, set a deadline for the job and let the crowd work. When the deadline arrives, review the different submissions and reward the best one.

Crowdfunding: Use the crowd to raise money for your company, charity or artistic endeavour. Pass a hat to the crowd and ask for donations, or raise money for a company by selling shares of stock.

To access the handy Crowdsourcing For Dummies cheat sheet, go online and head to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/crowdsourcinguk.

In this part . . .

Rouse and engage with the competitive crowd to generate new ideas with crowdcontests.

Raise money for your company, charity or artistic endeavour in small donations from a large crowd with crowdfunding.

Use the market to engage the crowd and find the specialist skills you lack, but which you need to complete a job, with macrotasking.

Break down a large job into small, straightforward tasks for the crowd, and tap into the crowd’s energy, with microtasking.

Accomplish goals, learn from the crowd and let the crowd organise itself by harnessing the power of self-organised crowds.