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Kassel University +

Chair for

Information Systems

Pfannkuchstr. 1

34121 Kassel

[email protected]

Crowdsourcing as a New Way of

Organizing Work

Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister

University of St. Gallen

Institute for

Information Management

Müller Friedberg Str. 8

CH 9000 St. Gallen

[email protected]

Literature Review on Crowdsourcing :

http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_arbp_287.pdf


Different Forms of Crowdsourcing

Crowd

Voting

Crowd

Funding Crowd

Creation

Crowdsourcees

donate

Crowdsourcees

make evaluations

Crowdsourcee

develop and

design solutions

Pro

du

ctio

n C

ost

s o

f C

row

dso

urc

ees

Source: Leimeister 2012, p. 390


Areas of Application of Crowdsourcing

Inbound

Logistics

Research & Development

Finance

Infrastructure

After Sales Production Marketing &

Sales

Primary

Activities

Supporting

Activities


Universität Kassel | FG Wirtschaftsinformatik

• Crowd is called to become productive

• Possible Forms:

– Idea generation

– Creation of concepts

– Perform minijobs

– Software testing

– Code production

– Publish videos, photos, etc.

• „User generated content“:

– Published content

– creative individual performance

– Non-professional creations

Crowdcreation


Main Pros and Cons of Crowdsourcing

Advantages

• Access to an enormous pool of

competence and knowledge

• Acquisition of more innovative

problem solutions

• Faster task processing due to

decomposition of tasks

• Cost cutting potential

• Increase of flexibility due to

demand-oriented usage of crowd

• Focus on core competencies

• Increase of market acceptance

due to the involvement of

(potential) customers

Disadvantages

• Necessity to define tasks/processes

very precisely

• Difficult calculable (total) costs of

all measures that are essential for

implementation of crowdsourcing

• Risk of losing control over crowd

activities

• Costly measures to create

appropriate incentive structures

• Loss of internal know how

• Risk of resistance of internal staff


Phases und Measures within Crowdsourcing

Processes

• Ideal-typical process includes five phases

• Independently of type of tasks (small, creative, complex tasks, etc.)

• Measures in the first phase (task specification) very critical

Phase 1:

Task Specification

Phase 2:

Selection of

Crowdsourcees

Phase 3:

Execution

of Tasks

Phase 4:

Aggregation and

Selection of Solutions

Phase 5:

Remuneration

• Granularity:

Decompostion of

tasks

• Specify tasks in

detail

• Definition of

solution

requirements

• Determine form of

work

• Unrestricted call

(„everybody“ can

participate)

• Preselection of

contributors

based on

competencies

and/or personal

traits

• Task processing:

Crowdvoting: Make

evaluations

Crowdfunding:

Donate/invest

money

Crowdcreation:

Develop and submit

ideas/concepts/

solutions

• Collect submissions

and select

appropriate

solutions

• Integrative:

Combine solutions

• Selective: Selection

of (only) the most

appropriate

solutions

• Accepted tasks are

rewarded

• Integrative:

Remunerations of

all submitted

solutions

• Selective:

Remuneration of

only best

solution(s)


• Standardization and decomposition of

complex work operations into

single/simple activities

• Principles of Taylorism

• Tasks can be completed by less qualified

crowdsourcees

• Analogy to the industrialization of

production processes: Most effort for

planing, coordinating and controlling work

• Crowdsourcing-Manager: takes over

disposition tasks

Phase 1:

Task

Specification

•Granularity:

Decompostion of tasks

•Specify tasks in detail

•Definition of solution

requirements

•Determine form of

work

Phases und Measures within Crowdsourcing

Processes


Ways of Working

Work in

Crowdsourcing

Systems

Tournament-based

Approach

Collaboration-based

Approach

Time-oriented Output-oriented

• Principle of competition

•Crowdsourcees work

independently

•Only the best solution(s)

is/are rewarded

•Reward is determined in

advance

•Requirements for the

presentation of the results

•Beispiele: TopCoder, Atizo

• Time-oriented competitiont:

„first-come-first-serve“

•Remuneration of all solutions

that meet the (quality)

requirements

•Requirements for the

presentation of the results

•Beispiele: oDesk, testCloud

•Crowdsourcees work

together

•Crowdsourcees submit

joint solution

• Examples: Dell Idea Storm,

SAPiens, …


Motivations of Crowdsourcees

Different extrinsic und intrinsic Motives

• „Fun“ doing Crowd Work

• „Social exchange“

• „Learning“ in the frame of Crowd Work

• „Recognition “ by other Crowdsourcees

• „Self-Marketing “

• „Monetary Compensation“


Forms of Remuneration

Platform System Incentive Structure / Remuneration

Amazon

Mechanical Turk Crowdsourcer

determines the

price

• Fix payment for a task/job (payment per job)

• Payment only if & when the crowdsourcer accepts the submitted solution

• Ø hourly wage at AMT 1,25 $; no compliance with minimum wage in the US

Freelancer

• Fix payment for a project (payment per hour)

• Minimum amount for a project: 20 € per hour

• Average remuneration: 200 € per hour

Spreadshirt

Crowdworker

determines the

price

• Crowdworker provides a t-shirt-design for a given price. For each shirt that is

sold, the crowdworker receives a portion of the profit

InnoCentive

Competition

• Idea competitions for scientific/complex tasks

• Remuneration depends on the complexity/severity level of the tasks.

Remuneration varies in size: from 1000 $ up to100.000 $

Moviebakery

• Moviebakery brings together amateur filmmakers with companies that are

on the lookout for (tv) ads commercials.

• Moviebakery preselects the best 10 vidoes und remunerates these

contribution with at leat 500 €

Trendwatching

Point System

• Trendspotter (= Crowdsourcees) observe specific developments on a given

market (they oft write detailed reports) and receive points for their work.

These points can be exchanged for non-cash prizes – e.g., smartphones.

IBM

Liquid

• Crowdworker receive so called Liquid Points (on their Blue Cards) for their

participation in a tender

• Reputation system: A company wide ranking list is set up based on the

points

• Higher rank increases oppotunities for being selected for other/new tenders

(Lepke/Rehm 2013)


Legal Frameworks

• No studies in this field / only few articles that tackle legal

frameworks

• In the US: No protection of Crowdworkers by labour law at

this time

• Felstiner (2011a) identifies three possibilities (for the

legislation) for dealing with online-work/Crowd Work:

– „The Blind Eye“: ignore the new developments

– 1:1 application of traditional labour laws: these could, however, not

be sufficient

– Context-driven adaption of laws to the new: new regulations are

necessary

• In Germany: No articles that address legal frameworks


• Change of solidarity/corporate culture? Effects of crowdsourcing on „co-operation and working climate“ /

coporate culture

Increasing competition between employees

• Neue Form of Taylorism/ „digital sweat shops“? Outsourcing of entrepreneurial risks to crowdsourcees

Digital piecework? Humans as a „factor of production“?

• Change of employee monitoring? „Electronic surveillance“: Crowdsourcer/crowdsourcing platform can trace

each and every work step of crowdsourcees

Possible Implications for Employees


Possible Implications for Employees

• Relief of internal employees from routine tasks? Concentration on core competencies

• New job opportunities? Job variety/ possibility to perform different kinds of tasks

• More autonomy/self-determination/flexibility? Autonomous actions: Crowdsourcing increases flexibility of emplyees and

has impact on work motivation and work arrangements as well

• More transparent communication processes? Different mechanisms (e.g., crowd voting / feedback by the crowd)

enable an active co-determination & enhance exchange with project

managers/superiors in different phases


Kassel University +

Chair for

Information Systems

Pfannkuchstr. 1

34121 Kassel

[email protected]

Crowdsourcing as a New Way of

Organizing Work

Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister

University of St. Gallen

Institute for

Information Management

Müller Friedberg Str. 8

CH 9000 St. Gallen

[email protected]

Literature Review on Crowdsourcing :

http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_arbp_287.pdf

crowdsourcing as a new way of organizing workspreadshirt crowdworker determines the price...

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