First of all, what is crowdsourcing?
According to the boring old dictionary, “crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.”
In other words, it’s basically the practice of engaging a group of people for a common goal on the internet. It can often be used for reasons such innovation, problem solving or efficiency (Crowd Sourcing Week). The beauty of crowdsourcing it that it has a number of advantages across many industries as it allows for more complex data for researchers (Conley 2014). To give an example, Wikipedia is the best well-known example of crowdsourcing.
Data gathered from crowdsourcing can be used to help with:
- Finding solutions to tough problems
- Diversified thinking
- Faster problem solving
- Generating new ideas
“So how does this (crowdsourcing) relate to times of crisis like you said in the header?”
Well, crowdsourcing can be used in times of crisis to help provide real life data that authorities can lean on to check and verify information. The only reason why governments or agencies would hesitate to crowdsource would be due to the concerns around quality, accountability, trust, liability, financial costs and corporate privacy and security (Johnson, P 2019). Crowdsourcing is typically conducted by an outside agency therefor governments may feel that they lack control throughout a time of crisis. This is also why us uni students aren’t allowed to reference off Wikipedia… L
An example of crowdsourcing being used in times of crisis is the 2011 earthquake in Japan. If you’re unfamiliar with this disaster, more than 450,000 people become homeless and an estimated 15,500 people died in 2011 as a result of the strongest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history. In the wake of the event, authorities we’re able to leverage off the crowd mapping tool, Ushahidi, to help with response and recovery. The image below shows real-time social media posts in the wake of the disaster (Swinburne Online).
Closer to home, emergency services also used social media to distribute and gather important information throughout crisis situations such as the 2011 Queensland floods and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires through the use of social mapping tools.
Although crowdsourcing can lead to false and unreliable information, innovative means are becoming available and for facilitating and improving the way we relay information around the community throughout times of crisis.
The question remains though, should crowdsourcing be relied on through times of crisis, or can this information be misleading and put people’s lives at risk?
References
Conley, C 2014, Crowdsourcing content analysis for managerial research, Volume 52 Issue 4, viewed 20 September 2021,<https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MD-03-2012-0156/full/html>
Crowd Sourcing Week, What is Crowdsourcing?, viewed 20 September 2021,<https://crowdsourcingweek.com/what-is-crowdsourcing-open-innovation-prize-challenge/>.
Johnson, P 2019, Government Information Quarterly, Volume 36, Issue 3, Pages 501-509, viewed 20 September 2021,<https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0740624X18303083>
Swinburne Online, Modules 8.3, viewed 20 September 2021,<https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/2966/pages/8-dot-3-social-mapping?module_item_id=229046>
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