Crowdsourcing Activities Research Articles

Gamifying cultural experiences across the urban environment

New media and devices are offering huge possibilities for the enhancement and the enrichment of heritage experiences, improving the users’ involvement. In particular, tourists equipped with their mobile devices are invading cultural attractions, sharing pictures and comments (together with hashtags and geo-localized positions) on social networks. These represent an unofficial source of data, which can be integrated with the official ones provided by GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) and cultural heritage institutions, enriching them. At the same time, travel planners and mobile applications related to cultural heritage can play an interesting role in the development of smart cities, when they are integrated each other, engaging the user in touristic and entertainment activities, letting him/her be a source of cultural resources. This work focuses on equipping users (citizens and tourists) with a system providing support in computing personalized urban paths across cultural heritage places (monuments, palaces, museums, and other points of interest (POIs) related to cultural heritage in the urban environment) and in sharing multimedia resources about POIs, by exploiting gamification elements with the aim of engaging citizens and tourists. A mobile application prototype has been implemented, showing the feasibility of the proposed approach and exploiting crowdsourcing activities as a source of information for cultural places and works of art.

Open innovation and the effects of Crowdsourcing in a pharma ecosystem

This study examines the emerging organizational concept of Crowdsourcing where new idea submissions from outside the firm's boundaries are obtained, selected, evaluated, coded, and integrated into the organization. This research is developed through a case study of a large European pharmaceutical company ‘PharmaFX’, we investigate the process of the interactions between the host company and its collaborators. The Crowdsourcing activities conducted in 2014 and 2015 are presented and acquired benefits are reported on from the perspective of transaction cost.One of our central findings provide newly discovered evidence that the process of “scientific Ideation Challenge” as seen planned and implemented in PharmaFX in collaboration with InnoCentive – a reputable Crowdsourcing platform intermediary – have unique process characteristics, became less economically viable for PharmaFX than anticipated, this was partly due to the broadness of the scope of the Crowdsourcing initiatives. These findings could have a significant impact on future open innovation strategies and their economic viability in drug development.

High customer involvement: an essential element for effective co-creation

Understanding customer needs for meeting the customer expectations and to provide customer satisfaction is pivotal for the long term sustainability of the firm. Customer involvement, through 'co-creation' for developing the products and services will ensure this sustainability. This paper explains the meaning of co-creation, state the difference between co-creation and customisation- the most closely associated term with co-creation and elongates the difference between customerisation and crowdsourcing activities. This paper projects firms understanding of the co-creation concept and give suggestive ways and direction of concept implementation in an organisation. Research is conducted by using secondary sources and used in context of clarifying the concept of co-creation viz a viz other overlapping concepts. Two disguised caselets are also used to build clarity of the concept. On the basis of current literature, caselets and theoretical understanding we propose that an activity with high customer involvement, preferably at each stage of development of product and services can be called as a criteria to qualify for an activity to be termed as co-creation.

OSM POI ANALYZER: A PLATFORM FOR ASSESSING POSITION OF POIs IN OPENSTREETMAP

Abstract. In recent years, more and increased participation in Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) projects provides enough data coverage for most places around the world for ordinary mapping and navigation purposes, however, the positional credibility of contributed data becomes more and more important to bring a long-term trust in VGI data. Today, it is hard to draw a definite traditional boundary between the authoritative map producers and the public map consumers and we observe that more and more volunteers are joining crowdsourcing activities for collecting geodata, which might result in higher rates of man-made mistakes in open map projects such as OpenStreetMap. While there are some methods for monitoring the accuracy and consistency of the created data, there is still a lack of advanced systems to automatically discover misplaced objects on the map. One feature type which is contributed daily to OSM is Point of Interest (POI). In order to understand how likely it is that a newly added POI represents a genuine real-world feature scientific means to calculate a probability of such a POI existing at that specific position is needed. This paper reports on a new analytic tool which dives into OSM data and finds co-existence patterns between one specific POI and its surrounding objects such as roads, parks and buildings. The platform uses a distance-based classification technique to find relationships among objects and tries to identify the high-frequency association patterns among each category of objects. Using such method, for each newly added POI, a probabilistic score would be generated, and the low scored POIs can be highlighted for editors for a manual check. The same scoring method can be used for existing registered POIs to check if they are located correctly. For a sample study, this paper reports on the evaluation of 800 pre-registered ATMs in Paris with associated scores to understand how outliers and fake entries could be detected automatically.

Learning an Optimization Algorithm Through Human Design Iterations

Solving optimal design problems through crowdsourcing faces a dilemma: On the one hand, human beings have been shown to be more effective than algorithms at searching for good solutions of certain real-world problems with high-dimensional or discrete solution spaces; on the other hand, the cost of setting up crowdsourcing environments, the uncertainty in the crowd's domain-specific competence, and the lack of commitment of the crowd contribute to the lack of real-world application of design crowdsourcing. We are thus motivated to investigate a solution-searching mechanism where an optimization algorithm is tuned based on human demonstrations on solution searching, so that the search can be continued after human participants abandon the problem. To do so, we model the iterative search process as a Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm and propose an inverse BO (IBO) algorithm to find the maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the BO parameters based on human solutions. We show through a vehicle design and control problem that the search performance of BO can be improved by recovering its parameters based on an effective human search. Thus, IBO has the potential to improve the success rate of design crowdsourcing activities, by requiring only good search strategies instead of good solutions from the crowd.

A Process Model for Establishing Business Process Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing can be an organisational strategy to distribute work to Internet users and harness innovation, information, capacities, and variety of business endeavours. As crowdsourcing is different from other business strategies, organisations are often unsure as to how to best structure different crowdsourcing activities and integrate them with other organisational business processes. To manage this problem, we design a process model guiding how to establish business process crowdsourcing. The model consists of seven components covering the main activities of crowdsourcing processes, which are drawn from a knowledge base incorporating diverse knowledge sources in the domain. The built model is evaluated using case studies, suggesting the adequateness and utility of the model.

Fine-Grained Recommendation Mechanism to Curb Astroturfing in Crowdsourcing Systems

Crowdsourcing activities, carrying out large-scale tasks via wisdoms of crowds, are widely used in practice. However, it is hard for users to find tasks that are suitable for them. Thus, many users participate in tasks, and they are not good at or not interested in, and give answers carelessly or randomly. This phenomenon causes heavy astroturfing problem in crowdsourcing systems, which not only hurts the quality of completing tasks, but also influences user experience. Therefore, recommendation mechanisms that can optimize the match between users and tasks are in demand. However, existing studies simply adopt users’ expertise level or interest degree as the key rule for recommendation. They neglect the fact that interest and expertise function jointly, and that interest can sometimes exert reaction force on expertise. Besides, previous studies assume that users’ interest degree is steady, yet ignoring that it is time-varying rather than static in real world. In this paper, we propose IntexCrowd, fine-grained recommendation mechanism through interest-expertise collaborative awareness for crowdsourcing systems, to curb astroturfing problem. First, the IntexCrowd assigns a topic to each task. Then, topic-specific expertise level as well as interest degree of users are estimated according to historical records of tasks. At last, suitable user lists for topic-specific tasks are suggested as recommendation results. And we present a case study and a set of experiments to confirm the validity of IntexCrowd.

Incorporating Values Sensitive Design into Crowdsourcing Methodologies for Knowledge Collaboration

ABSTRACTIn recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in crowdsourcing approaches to solve problems and engage in other types of knowledge work in many domains, including genetics, health, cultural heritage, digital preservation and design. Crowdsourcing initiatives offer many potential benefits, including engaging individuals of diverse backgrounds in collaborative meaning‐making and production. And yet, the potential challenges and dangers, such as issues related to quality and false confidence, can hardly escape our attention. This panel will explore how human‐centered approaches to crowdsourcing can help minimize its challenges. In particular, this panel will ask how we implement crowdsourcing methods, what our outcomes should be, and how we should go about developing and defining our outcomes in relationship to the workers. The first half of the session will be devoted to an introduction to crowdsourcing initiatives and associated critical issues. Each presentation will drill progressively deeper into the mechanisms and implications of crowdsourcing. In the second half of the session, we invite session attendees to engage with us in a collaborative activity employing techniques from the value sensitive design approach to design crowdsourcing initiatives that are sensitive to the communities with whom we engage and thereby endeavor to realize humanistic goals. It is our hope that the panel session will result in new collaborations and spark the development of more thoughtful, reflexive and productive crowdsourcing activities.

Digital Scholarly Editing. Theories, Models and Methods. Elena Pierazzo.

Digital Scholarly Editing. Theories, Models and Methods. Elena Pierazzo. Farnham, Surrey: Routledge, 2015. 242 pp. ISBN 978-1-4724-1211-9. £65 (hardback) Digital Scholarly Editing (DSE) stands as a long-awaited and timely contribution to the field. A valuable addition to an already vast canon on the subject, it remains one of the rare instances of a systematic investigation of a field which, while still undergoing a phase of experimentation, has now reached a level of maturity that begs for such a comprehensive analysis. By distancing itself from historical and evaluative accounts as well as from a ‘how-to’ guide to digital editing, the book advocates for a ‘heightened awareness of medium as a methodological question’ in textual scholarship (Fraistat and Flanders, 2013, p. 1), offering a detailed analysis of ‘the methodological implications of the application of computational methods to all stages of the editorial workflow’ (p. 1). This guiding principle allows the author not only to deconstruct and further challenge the persistent adherence to the ‘page paradigm’ that brings digital editions to ‘only timidly engag[e] with the medium’ (p. 2) but also to provide an exemplary methodological analysis of DSE through modelling. The first four chapters address theoretical aspects of DSE. The book begins with a concise overview of traditional editorial models. A number of emergent born-digital editorial approaches, such as phylogenetic analysis, social editing, crowdsourcing, and ergodic editions, are then discussed in detail. Crowdsourcing activities, for instance, are classified according to five parameters (context, participants, tasks, quality control, and role in the project), while analysis of the source-and-the-output model (paradigmatic editions) brings the author to argue that encoding could blur the boundaries between different types of editions (diplomatic, reading, etc.). Established practices in the digital realm, such as the side-by-side view discussed in the section devoted to interactivity and gamification, are also challenged. The chapter concludes with an examination of functional analyses of DSEs. In the second chapter, the author applies … anna-maria.sichani{at}huygens.knaw.nl

Crowdsourcing: a comprehensive literature review

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of crowdsourcing literature.Design/methodology/approach– This study is a comprehensive review of 346 articles on crowdsourcing. Both statistical and contents analyses were conducted in this paper.Findings– ISI listed journal articles, non-ISI listed journal articles and conference articles have had nearly the same contribution in crowdsourcing literature. Articles published in non-ISI listed journals have had an essential role in the initial theory development related to crowdsourcing. Scholars from the USA have authored approximately the same number of articles as scholars from all the European countries combined. Scholars from developing countries have been more relatively active in authoring conference articles than journal articles. Only very recently, top-tier journals have engaged in publishing on crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has proven to be beneficial in many tasks, but the extant literature does not give much help to practitioners in capturing value from crowdsourcing. Despite understanding that the motivations of crowds are crucial when planning crowdsourcing activities, the various motivations in different contexts have not been explored sufficiently. A major concern has been the quality and accuracy of information that has been gathered through crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing bears a lot of unused potential. For example, it can increase employment opportunities to low-income people in developing countries. On the other hand, more should be known of fair ways to organize crowdsourcing so that solution seekers do not get a chance to exploit individuals committing to provide solutions.Research limitations/implications– The literature included in the study is extensive, but an all-inclusive search for articles was limited to only nine selected publishers. However, in addition to the articles retrieved from the nine selected publishers, 52 highly cited articles were also included from other publishers.Practical implications– Crowdsourcing has much unused potential, and the use of crowdsourcing is increasing rapidly. The study provides a thematic review of various applications of crowdsourcing.Originality/value– The study is the first of its kind to explore the development of crowdsourcing literature, discussing the loci and foci of extant articles and listing applications of crowdsourcing. Successful applications of crowdsourcing include idea generation, microtasking, citizen science, public participation, wikies, open source software and citizen journalism.

Crowdsourcing Application in Marketing Activities

Active deployment of information communication technologies between consumers’ enables them contribute actively to various business activities. A crowdsourcing phenomenon is observed recently from perspectives ranging from users involvement in company's communication activities to various crowdfunding models. Aim of this paper is to explore crowdsourcing phenomena, analyse factors affecting consumers’ involvement into crowdsourcing activities and explore crowdsourcing deployment in company's marketing activities. From the marketing perspective crowdsourcing might be deployed in various activities such as market research, communication, new products development and testing, innovative ideas development and others. Though companies should be aware of possible limitations and ethical issues related to crowdsourcing as well.

Ethical Aspects of Crowdsourcing, or is it a Modern Form of Exploitation

Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model, first crowdsourcing mentioning in literature is dated in 2006. Crowdsourcing is new phenomenon in business, which appeared due to new possibilities of Web 2.0. Main Crowdsourcing advantage for entrepreneurs is opportunity to cut labour costs. Part of Crowdsourcing opponents criticizing it for human exploitation. Present paper has two goals, first of all to find out what does exploitation really mean from philosophical perspective and the second to determine Crowdsourcing activities participant's attitude to the fact of exploitation. The biggest part of previous research was dedicated to contributors’ motivation, what moves them to take part in certain project. This work scrutinize participant’s attitude to their previous experience in Crowdsourcing and motivation to repeat it again, that has substantial importance to Crowdsourcing sustainability in long term perspective. Taking into account, that method itself is realized by means on Internet, the research is conducted on-line, based on Crowdsourcing intermediate platform “Amazon Mechanical Turks”, and has wide geographical coverage. Present research is interesting not only to academia circles, but also to socially responsible entrepreneurs, who is interested in applying this tool, maintaining high level of ethics and moral.

New marketing frontiers: crowdsourcing. Theoretical hints and empirical evidences

Purpose of the study . This research paper aims at deeply understanding the evolution of marketing strategies with a tight of the involvement of the customers, with particular reference to the higher consumer confidence with web 2.0 tools and their value-added services. The research focuses on the exploration of the firm-consumer-firm connection that comes out through crowdsourcing activities. Methodology . Through a case study analysis, we explore the implications of the customer role in crowdsourcing initiatives and their influence on marketing activities. The theoretical framework of the research links the Service-Dominant Logic and the Resource-Based Theory in the light of the user-innovation approach. Findings . The case study analysis focuses on Turismo Emilia Romagna and Destination New South Wales in order to understand the reasons why they chose to apply crowdsourcing as well as how they involve the communities, thanks to the firms’ resources and competences in developing innovative crowdsourcing activities. Research limits . According to the main scopes of a research paper, the paper makes a comparison between a national and an international case, but the aim is to enlarge the present research by analyzing numerous other relevant cases. Practical implications . Customers have a key role in designing and implementing marketing policies both at induced and organic level, so crowdsourcing can be really helpful for firms in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Originality of the study . Crowdsourcing represents a new marketing frontier for firms since it allows creating new marketing opportunities for firms according to the hypercompetitive environment in which they operate.

Crowd-sourcing as a Component of Humanities Research Infrastructures

Crowd-sourcing, the process of leveraging public participation in or contribution to a project or activity, is relatively new to academic research, but is becoming increasingly important as the Web transforms collaboration and communication and blurs the boundaries between the academic and non-academic worlds. At the same time, digital research methods are entering the mainstream of humanities research, and there are a number of initiatives addressing the conceptualisation and construction of research infrastructures for the humanities. This paper examines the place of crowd-sourcing activities within such initiatives, presenting a framework for describing and analysing academic humanities crowd-sourcing, and using this framework of ‘primitives’ as a basis for exploring potential relationships between crowd-sourcing and humanities research infrastructures.

Virtual Communities as Narrative Networks

This paper extends our understanding of knowledge creation in virtual communities of practice by examining crowdsourcing activities that enable knowledge creation in these social structures. An interpretive methodology, narrative networks analysis, is used to systematically study the narratives of discussion forums in a virtual community. The virtual community studied is voluntary for the participants, and open to anyone. Through the analysis of the narrative, a model of knowledge creation is developed that identifies types of evidentiary knowledge contributions, as well as conversation mitigators that help or hinder knowledge creation within the community. Knowledge is a primary attraction of a virtual community for many of its members, and this study aims to understand how knowledge is shared and created in such voluntary communities of practice. The model highlights elements that enhance and impair knowledge creation in this type of crowdsourced environment.