Topic
Crowdsourcing
About: Crowdsourcing is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 12889 publications have been published within this topic receiving 230638 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: The authors presented a model of workers supplying labor to paid crowdsourcing projects and introduced a method for estimating a worker's reservation wage, the smallest wage a worker is willing to accept for a task and the key parameter in their labor supply model.
Abstract: Crowdsourcing is a form of "peer production" in which work traditionally performed by an employee is outsourced to an "undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." We present a model of workers supplying labor to paid crowdsourcing projects. We also introduce a novel method for estimating a worker's reservation wage--the smallest wage a worker is willing to accept for a task and the key parameter in our labor supply model. It shows that the reservation wages of a sample of workers from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT) are approximately log normally distributed, with a median wage of $1.38/hour. At the median wage, the point elasticity of extensive labor supply is 0.43. We discuss how to use our calibrated model to make predictions in applied work. Two experimental tests of the model show that many workers respond rationally to offered incentives. However, a non-trivial fraction of subjects appear to set earnings targets. These "target earners" consider not just the offered wage--which is what the rational model predicts--but also their proximity to earnings goals. Interestingly, a number of workers clearly prefer earning total amounts evenly divisible by 5, presumably because these amounts make good targets.
550 citations
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TL;DR: This study develops a more complete composite of what motivates the crowd to participate in crowdsourcing applications generally, information crucial to adapt the crowdsourcing model to new forms of problem-solving.
Abstract: Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model already in use by businesses such as Threadless.com, iStockphoto.com, and InnoCentive.com. This model, which harnesses the collective intelligence of a crowd of Web users through an open-call format, has the potential for government and non-profit applications. Yet, in order to explore new applications for the crowdsourcing model, there must be a better understanding of why crowds participate in crowdsourcing processes. Based on 17 interviews conducted via instant messenger with members of the crowd at Threadless, the present study adds qualitatively rich data on a new crowdsourcing case to an existing body of quantitative data on motivations for participation in crowdsourcing. Four primary motivators for participation at Threadless emerge from these interview data: the opportunity to make money, the opportunity to develop one's creative skills, the potential to take up freelance work, and the love of community at Threadless. A f...
549 citations
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01 Jan 2011TL;DR: This work adapts different models from classic motivation theory, work motivation theory and Open Source Software Development to crowdsourcing markets and finds that the extrinsic motivational categories have a strong effect on the time spent on the platform.
Abstract: The payment in paid crowdsourcing markets like Amazon Mechanical Turk is
very low, and still collected demographic data shows that the participants
are a very diverse group including highly skilled full time workers. Many
existing studies on their motivation are rudimental and not grounded on
established motivation theory. Therefore, we adapt different models from
classic motivation theory, work motivation theory and Open Source Software
Development to crowdsourcing markets. The model is tested with a survey of
431 workers on Mechanical Turk. We find that the extrinsic motivational
categories (imme-diate payoffs, delayed payoffs, social motivation) have a
strong effect on the time spent on the platform. For many workers, however,
intrinsic motivation aspects are more important, especially the different
facets of enjoyment based motivation like “task autonomy” and “skill
variety”. Our contribution is a preliminary model based on established
theory intended for the comparison of different crowdsourcing platforms.
546 citations
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07 May 2011TL;DR: This empirical study of "digital volunteers" in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake describes their behaviors and mechanisms of self-organizing in the information space of a microblogging environment, where collaborators were newly found and distributed across continents.
Abstract: This empirical study of "digital volunteers" in the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake describes their behaviors and mechanisms of self-organizing in the information space of a microblogging environment, where collaborators were newly found and distributed across continents. The paper explores the motivations, resources, activities and products of digital volunteers. It describes how seemingly small features of the technical environment offered structure for self-organizing, while considering how the social-technical milieu enabled individual capacities and collective action. Using social theory about self-organizing, the research offers insight about features of coordination within a setting of massive interaction.
539 citations
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TL;DR: A critical examination of the substrate of crowdsourcing research is presented by surveying the landscape of existing studies, including theoretical foundations, research methods, and research foci, and identifies several important research directions for IS scholars from three perspectives—the participant, organization, and system—and which warrant further study.
Abstract: Crowdsourcing is one of the emerging Web 2.0 based phenomenon and has attracted great attention from both practitioners and scholars over the years. It can facilitate the connectivity and collaboration of people, organizations, and societies. We believe that Information Systems scholars are in a unique position to make significant contributions to this emerging research area and consider it as a new research frontier. However, so far, few studies have elaborated what have been achieved and what should be done. This paper seeks to present a critical examination of the substrate of crowdsourcing research by surveying the landscape of existing studies, including theoretical foundations, research methods, and research foci, and identifies several important research directions for IS scholars from three perspectives--the participant, organization, and system--and which warrant further study. This research contributes to the IS literature and provides insights for researchers, designers, policy-makers, and managers to better understand various issues in crowdsourcing systems and projects.
535 citations