Web's Largest listing of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding events

Events

Advertise

Web's Largest Directory of Sites

2,358 crowdsourcing and crowdfunding sites

Crowdsourcing: Who Benefits The Most?

document Distributed Knowledge

Crowdsourcing: Who Benefits The Most?
By Amber King, August 6, 2012

Social networks have not only changed how we interact with each other, they also brought to life a new concept which is truly disrupting the business world and its related industries. The ease of connectivity provided by social networking has given birth to the idea of “crowdsourcing”. What is crowdsourcing? Previously, there a was a large gap between those who had the skills and those who needed those skills. This allowed professionally skilled people to command a high price for the specific skills that they offered because no one else was available to perform their services. However, now that the internet and social media has allowed the world to be more interconnected, this gap is slowly and surely getting smaller. Companies are no longer limited to the professionals located in their country or state. Most operational processes can be outsourced to a professional located halfway around the world. However, not all outsourced services are done by professionals. Most are done by crowds of people whose skills range from basic knowledge to “just trying it out.” Due to the sudden abundance of talent available, companies have been able to get away with paying professionals on a SPEC (or speculative) work basis. The “do this for me, and I’ll pay you IF I like it.”

There are so many professionals hankering to get the job that they are willing to let the companies call the shots for their services. Crowdsourcing should not be mistaken for outsourcing, however. Though they are correlated to each other, crowdsourcing and outsourcing are not exactly interchangeable. While crowdsourcing will always be a form of outsourcing, not all outsourced projects are crowdsourced. Furthermore, the end products of crowdsourced projects are mostly below par, while projects outsourced to reliable BPO companies are of professional quality. The Good The greatest appeal of crowdsourcing is how it can help deliver projects in such cheap prices compared to soliciting the services of a professional, allowing even small and startup business to produce attractive websites, advertisements, and marketing materials that could compete with those produced by companies who have millions of dollars to spend. Companies no longer pay advertising companies millions of dollars when they can crowdsource the ideas and execution of their advertisements for much cheaper prices through GeniusRocket. Aside from that, you can also crowdsource funding for your new business thanks to Kickstarter’s revolutionary concept. If you’re a serial entrepreneur looking for ideas for your next big startup, you can crowdsource business ideas like products or services through AHHHA.com. That’s not all. You can also crowdsource the photos of your merchandise for your ecommerce site through Olapic, a “social photo crowdsourcing service”.

The Bad Crowdsourcing is so effective, in fact, that it has basically lead traditional industries to pointlessness. No longer is professional photography a sought after skill; with the latest smartphone or camera and a copy of photoshop, anyone can produce high quality images. Even professional designers are feeling the threat posed by companies such as 99designs, DesignCrowd, and Crowdspring which allow companies to crowdsource logo designs for as little as $5. While crowdsourcing does have its advantages, it is mostly viewed as destructive by the industries that it has affected the most. Professional photographers and designers who spend years learning their craft and pay universities thousand of dollars to earn their degree discover that they can no longer find anyone willing to pay for their professional services. Banks are seeing less people seeking to loan thanks to crowdfunding. So, who benefits the most from crowdsourcing? Certainly not the professionals who are bypassed by the companies in their search for skills.

Summary
Social networks have not only changed how we interact with each other, they also brought to life a new concept which is truly disrupting the business world and its related industries. The ease of connectivity provided by social networking has given birth to the idea of “crowdsourcing”.

Description
The greatest appeal of crowdsourcing is how it can help deliver projects in such cheap prices compared to soliciting the services of a professional, allowing even small and startup business to produce attractive websites, advertisements, and marketing materials that could compete with those produced by companies who have millions of dollars to spend. Companies no longer pay advertising companies millions of dollars when they can crowdsource the ideas and execution of their advertisements for much cheaper prices through GeniusRocket.

Tags: Crowdfunding, Crowdsource, Crowdsourced, Crowdsourcing, GeniusRocket, Kickstarter, Knowledge

Posted by Adam Frazer

Aug 07, 2012 06:11 am GMT Viewed 625 times

Author: Amber King Source

Contact us if you are owner of this content and want to make changes.

Download Flag This

Events

Crowdsourcing: Who Benefits The Most?

Comments

Crowdsourcing.org

Categories

Content

Crowdsourcing.org, an initiative by massolution®

Events

Related Content

Crowdsourcing: Who Benefits The Most?

Comments

Crowdsourcing.org

Categories

Content

Crowdsourcing.org, an initiative by massolution®