Managing Crowdsourcing Ventures Daren C. Brabham, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill October 27, 2011 MBA 812: Strategic Communication & Social Media Prof. Michael Meredith

Agenda How and why I study crowdsourcing What crowdsourcing is – Four types for four kinds of problems Effective management principles for crowdsourcing ventures Q&A

How & Why I Study Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing as a model for problem solving A critical, humanist approach More concerned with relationships & human experience – I’m optimistic, multi-method, holistic in research Less concerned with performance & efficiency – Those are the computer scientists and business innovation scholars

A Struggle Over the Term Challenges “in the form of an open call” “An online, distributed problem solving and production model” Like anything in Wired, “crowdsourcing” was an instant buzzword Old wine in new bottles? A bloated concept makes for unclear research

Generally, Crowdsourcing is… A process whereby: – an organization poses a specific challenge to an online community (a crowd) – the crowd answers that challenge – the organization benefits from the crowd’s labor Driven by collective intelligence & wisdom of crowds Openness + top-down management

A Crowdsourcing Typology Knowledge Discovery and Management Broadcast Search Peer-Vetted Creative Production Distributed Human Intelligence Tasking

Knowledge Discovery & Mgmt Online communities challenged to uncover existing knowledge in the network Amplify discovery capabilities of an organization with limited resources Ideal for info. gathering, organizing, and reporting problems (e.g., creating collective resources)

Knowledge Discovery & Mgmt

Broadcast Search Online communities challenged to find empirical solutions to difficult problems Casting a wide net finds the “needle in the haystack” – the genius able to solve the problem Ideal for ideation problems with empirical solutions (e.g., scientific problems)

Broadcast Search

Peer-Vetted Creative Production Online communities challenged to develop and choose solutions to ideation problems Inviting lot of diverse input brings in many (different) ideas. People “find the best stuff” Ideal for ideation problems where solutions are matters of taste or market support (e.g., design/aesthetic and policy problems)

Peer-Vetted Creative Production

Distributed Human Intelligence Tasking Online communities tasked to perform simple tasks that computers cannot do well Decomposing a problem/task requiring human intelligence into smaller pieces and distributing it is faster, better Ideal for large-scale data analysis requiring human intelligence

Distributed Human Intelligence Tasking

Typology Summary KD&M – Knowledge exists “out there.” Let’s find it and organize it. (collective resources) BS – There’s an empirically right answer. We just don’t know it. Let’s find it. (scientific problems) PVCP – The “right” answer is a matter of taste. Let’s have the market submit and select what it wants. (design & aesthetic problems) DHIT – We have lots of data to analyze. Computers won’t do. Let’s break the problem down and get people to do the work. (data analysis problems)

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 1. Clearly define your problem, solution parameters, and selection mechanism.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 2. Determine your level of commitment to the outcomes. Policy Advisory The impact of the crowd’s ideas on your organizational decisions

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 3. Know the crowd and their motivations. or

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 4. Invest in usable, interesting, well designed tools.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 5. Invest in legal help. Consider legal needs of you and the crowd.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 6. Have a promotional plan & a plan to grow and sustain the community.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 7. Be honest, transparent, and responsive.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 8. Be involved, but let go of control.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 9. Acknowledge users and follow through on obligations.

10 Crowdsourcing Mgmt Principles 10. Assess the project from many angles. – Site traffic analytics, user registration data – Interviews with participants – Analysis of submissions – Public relations impact (even in failure)

Thank You! Questions? darenbrabham