Crowdsourcing For Dummies®
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Table of Contents
Part I: Understanding Crowdsourcing Basics
Part II: Looking at the Different Forms of Crowdsourcing
Part IV: Getting All You Can Get from the Crowd
Part I: Understanding Crowdsourcing Basics
Chapter 1: People Power: Getting a Feel for Crowdsourcing
What Is This Thing Called Crowdsourcing?
Seeing how crowdsourcing works
Looking at crowdsourcing forms
Considering Why People Crowdsource
Introducing three key strengths
Benefitting from crowdsourcing
Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Forms of Crowdsourcing and Crowdmarkets
Harnessing the Power of Divided Labour
Splitting the job into big pieces
Dividing the job as small as you can
Letting the crowd divide the job
Using crowdsourcing to raise money
Looking at the Rules that Govern How Crowdmarkets Work
Distinguishing between contract and contest markets
Understanding collaborative and independent crowdworking
Chapter 3: Infiltrating the Crowd
Following the Crowdworker’s Steps
Taking Lessons from Your Time as a Crowdworker
Lesson 1: Crowdworkers have names and reputations
Lesson 2: Crowds need training
Lesson 3: Crowds want clear instructions
Lesson 4: Crowds are free to move
Joining the Staff of Wikipedia
Leaping into the Market with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
Qualifying and completing the task
Donning the White Lab Coat: Zooniverse
Chapter 4: Joining the Crowdforce
Deciding to Join the Crowdforce
Wading into self-organised crowds
Searching for careers in crowdfunding
Getting Up and Running on a Macrotask Crowdmarket
Setting yourself up on the market
Protecting Yourself as a Macrotasker
Making the Bid in Macrotasking
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Getting an extra recommendation
Part II: Looking at the Different Forms of Crowdsourcing
Chapter 5: Creating Crowdcontests
Reaping the Benefits of Crowdcontests
Understanding Types of Crowdcontest
Considering an Example: The Business Logo
Running a logo contest yourself
Using a contest service to run the contest for you
Chapter 6: Raising Money with Crowdfunding
Knowing the Basics of Crowdfunding
Seeing crowdfunding as a community activity
Deciding between all-or-nothing funding or partial funding
Running a Crowdfunding Project
Setting a deadline for a decision
Considering an Example: Creating a Playground
Accumulating Equity for a Company
Paying the fees and getting the funds
Chapter 7: Making Use of Macrotasks
Getting to Grips with Macrotasking
Seeing the Benefits of Macrotasks
Thinking process, not organisation
Putting together a statement of work for macrotask workers
Protecting intellectual property
Paying the macrotasker and closing the books
Considering an Example: Creating an App
Checking that your task is a macrotask
Chapter 8: Managing with Microtasks
Identifying Tasks That You Can Microsource
Knowing How the Microtasking Process Works
Keeping tasks short and simple
Training and validating workers
Working through an Example with Mechanical Turk
Reviewing the work and retrieving the results
Reviewing the prices of your microtasks
Chapter 9: Combining the Intelligence of Self-Organised Crowds
Getting to Grips with Self-Organised Crowds
Determining What You Need the Crowd to Do: Information Gathering and Decision Making
Organising a Prediction Market
Chapter 10: Engaging the Crowd with Your Project
Getting Started with Crowdbuilding
Knowing what motivates the crowd
Identifying the talent and resources you need
Adapting your strategy for public and private crowds
Inviting People to Join Your Crowd
Showing how tasks contribute to the overall goal
Updating the crowd on progress
Sustaining the Crowd’s Interest
Leading the crowd through the tasks
Chapter 11: Instructing the Crowd
Preparing the Fundamental Message: Writing a Statement of Work
Looking at an example statement of work
Connecting the Kneebone to the Thighbone: Creating Instructions
Thinking about who does what to what
Deciding the order of instructions
Getting Feedback on Your Guidance
Chapter 12: Crowdsourcing with Social Media
Knowing the Benefits and the Limitations of Social Media Crowdsourcing
Building a Private Crowd with Social Media
Doing Simple Crowdsourcing with Social Media
Crowdfunding: Fundraising with Facebook
Macrotasking: Looking for freelancers with LinkedIn
Crowdcontests: Turning to Twitter
Microtasking: Translating via a blog
Turning the Process Upside Down: Using a Crowdsourcing Tool
Crowdfunding: Going fundraising
Crowdcontests: Modifying marketing methods
Microtasking and crowdsurveys: Asking for Opinions on Facebook
Microtasking: Reading the tweet leaves
Recognising the Difference between Social Media and Social Research
Chapter 13: Picking Your Platform
Getting the Benefits of a Platform
Knowing what other people know
Using standardised crowdsourced services
Getting a helping hand with bookkeeping
Checking out individual portfolios
Protecting intellectual property
Deciding How Much You Want to Do
Doing a Little Comparison Shopping
Checking out the contest providers
Connecting with the macrotaskers
Looking at options for microtasking
Chapter 14: Managing Your Crowd
Starting with the Right Balance of Skills
Managing the Crowd Through the Project
Giving the crowd space to work
Keeping on Top of the Details: Payroll and Accounting
Incentivising to Build Quality
Taking inspiration from gamification
Computing the price of failure
Treating the cause, not the symptom
Protecting your intellectual property
When Crowds Attack: Dealing with Angry Crowds
Handling a discontented worker
Recognising structural problems
Managing the public relations problem
Chapter 15: Learning on the Job
Following the Cycle of Continuous Improvement
Using the Cycle in Crowdsourcing
Keeping an eye out for stumbling blocks
Reading the signs from the crowd
Stopping, revising and restarting
Lowering the Stakes with a Pilot Run
Adapting a Crowdfunding Campaign According to Results
Changing the means and the message
Part IV: Getting All You Can Get from the Crowd
Chapter 16: Combining Microtasks and Preparing Workflow
Discerning the Difference between Parallel and Serial Microtasks
Doing the job all at once: Parallel tasks
Putting one thing after another: Serial tasks
Appreciating the value of serial tasks
Working through an Example: Devising Workflow and Making Decisions in Mechanical Turk
Combining parallel and serial tasks
Going for Gold: The Many Benefits of Workflow
Chapter 17: Crowd Reporting: Using the Crowd to Gather Information and News
Understanding Why People Use Crowd Reporting
Combining amateurs and experts
Gathering Information Geographically with Ushahidi
Rallying the crowd to Ushahidi
Getting the Benefits while Avoiding the Perils of Crowd Reporting
Understanding the nature of the crowd
Knowing who’s talking: The crowd effect
Knowing what the crowd believes: Gresham’s Law
Chapter 18: Initiating Innovation
Understanding the Forms of Innovation Crowdsourcing
Asking for a Little Insight: Classes of Innovation
Bringing the unexpected into your plan with a crowdcontest
Knowing the different types of crowd
Matching your plans with the best crowd
Building New Products and Services with Co-creation
Generating ideas and defining products
Giving the product to the world
Considering an Example: Restructuring a Business with InnoCentive
Chapter 19: Preparing Your Organisation
Focusing on Crowdsourcing Elements of Processes
Chapter 20: Following the Future of Crowdsourcing: Ten (Or So) Websites to Watch
Discovering the State of Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing.org
Reading the Morning News: Daily Crowdsource
Getting the European Perspective: crowdsourcingblog.de
Meeting the Leaders: CrowdConf and Crowdopolis
Tracking Equity Crowdfunding: Crowdcube and Indiegogo
Monitoring the Growth of the Global Crowd: Clickworker and Trabajo
Expanding the Scope of Crowdcontests: Kaggle
Promoting Innovation: AHHHA and Innovation Exchange
Building New Microtasking Platforms: MobileWorks and Tagasauris
Macrotasking in the Boardroom: 10EQS
Chapter 21: Ten Best Practices to Adopt
Bringing the Crowd into the Decisions
Chapter 22: Ten Success Stories
Creating the SXSW Festival T-shirt
Developing Smith & Kraus’s Mobile App
Generating a New Movie Recommendation Method for Netflix
Building a National Treasure Trove
Running a Video Campaign for Audio-Technica
Getting USA Today on Mobile Phones
Writing Descriptions for Magnum Photos
Setting Up Coffee Joulie with the Crowd’s Backing
Chapter 23: Ten Crowdsourcing Blunders to Avoid
Thinking Crowdsourcing Is Easy
Failing to Review the Work of the Crowd
Not Knowing Who’s in the Crowd
Putting the Crowdsourcing Ahead of the Job