Use mypinio as an engaged and creative crowdsourcing community

What does crowdsourcing mean and what is a crowdsourcing community? A definition.

Crowdsourcing means that a large group of people who are physically separated from each other work together on something. This can be done on a voluntary basis or for payment. As a rule, people who agree to work together on something join together in a so-called crowdsourcing community. A crowdsourcing community is therefore a virtual place on the internet. People who have a concern and cannot solve it on their own can turn to a crowdsourcing community, describe their concern, problem or challenge and hope to get support from the members of the crowdsourcing community. In the case of social projects or challenges, it is not uncommon for members of a crowdsourcing community to offer their help for free. But companies also turn to crowdsourcing communities, for example to place paid surveys there or to gain ideas for the further or new development of products. These companies rely on the collective intelligence of the crowd. But the public sector also turns to crowdsourcing communities, for example when it comes to urban planning or urban development. And there are countless other examples of how crowdsourcing can be used.

Crowdsourcing is becoming more and more important

Until not so long ago, traditional companies in particular refrained from using crowdsourcing. The reasons for this were, for example, fear of idea theft or, in some cases, ignorance. After all, many companies have their own development and research departments that have dealt with innovations. So there was a lack of insight into the necessity.

Fortunately, this has changed. Crowdsourcing offers a multitude of financial and creative advantages for companies of all types and sizes. Many of the concerns that leaders had about crowdsourcing have now dissipated and even global corporations are harnessing the power of crowdsourcing. Ultimately, crowdsourcing offers companies and organisations unprecedented access to diverse, innovative ideas and swarm intelligence at very low cost.

More and more companies are therefore using crowdsourcing communities to develop new products or improve their existing products or services and to overcome existing challenges that can only be mastered if someone looks beyond their own horizon and overcomes operational blindness.

Use mypinio as a crowdsourcing community and set the crowd specific tasks.

Outsourcing creative processes to a crowdsourcing community

Crowdsourcing means that tasks that were originally done by one’s own employees or contracted agencies are now outsourced to a large group of people as a service to a crowdsourcing community. The members of the crowdsourcing community think about specific issues, then evaluate and comment on the ideas and suggestions submitted in order to find the best idea out of many ideas. The best ideas or approaches then become the property of the company or organisation that has turned to a crowdsourcing community with a question.

In some cases, members of a crowdsourcing community who have taken on the challenges receive money, vouchers or simply recognition. In other cases, the reward is also intellectual satisfaction, because some people actually enjoy taking on and solving intellectual challenges.

Why use a crowdsourcing community?

Generating outstanding ideas with crowdsourcing through the intelligence of the masses

There are many reasons to use a crowdsourcing platform. The need for outstanding ideas is, of course, the most frequently cited reason why companies use a crowdsourcing platform. Ideas are the origin of any innovation. If companies do not have a continuous flow of high-quality ideas, they will not be able to develop breakthrough or disruptive innovations. For this reason, using a crowdsourcing platform makes ideas a virtually inexhaustible resource. The more people participate in generating ideas, the more outstanding ideas there will be. This is pure mathematics.

Crowdsourcing gives a whole new perspective on things that are deadlocked

Companies and organisations are also turning to crowdsourcing platforms to shed operational blindness and gain fresh, new ideas from a different perspective. Because if you deal with the same things every day, then it can definitely happen that you can no longer think far enough outside the box and are stuck in your thoughts. So there’s nothing at all wrong with using crowdsourcing and you’re not belittling yourself, quite the opposite. If you open yourself up to new ideas and insights, you have understood that you need to broaden your own horizons.

A crowdsourcing community fills gaps

Another important reason for resorting to crowdsourcing is the fact that companies or organisations themselves do not have enough resources to generate a multitude of ideas in an inexhaustible abundance to actually bring about positive change in the end. Crowdsourcing enables them to get a high outcome of ideas with little effort.

What should you consider when using a crowdsourcing community as a company?

Using a crowdsourcing community can be a good way for companies to gather new ideas or solve problems quickly and cheaply. However, there are some things to keep in mind when using crowdsourcing:

• Define clear goals: Before you start crowdsourcing, you should set clear goals so that everyone involved knows what is expected of them.
• Choose appropriate platform: There are many platforms that offer crowdsourcing. Choose a platform that fits your goals and needs.
• Offer proper rewards: To encourage crowd participation, you should offer appropriate rewards. These can be money, in-kind services or public recognition, for example.
• Clarify usage rights: Make sure you have the necessary usage rights for the ideas or solutions submitted by the crowd.
• Communication and feedback: Keep communication with the crowd open and transparent and provide regular feedback to maintain participation and motivation.
  Pay attention to data protection: Make sure that you comply with data protection regulations and protect the privacy of the crowd members.

Overall, it is important that you plan carefully and take into account the aspects mentioned above in order to successfully benefit from crowdsourcing.

Is crowdsourcing also something that scientific institutions can benefit from?

Yes, scientific institutions can also benefit from a crowdsourcing community. Scientific institutions can use crowdsourcing to, for example:

• Collect or analyse data
• Solve problems or develop new ideas
• Translate materials or information
• Get feedback from the public

Crowdsourcing can also help make scientific knowledge available to the general public and encourage public participation in scientific projects. However, there are also some challenges that need to be considered when using crowdsourcing in scientific institutions, such as the quality of contributions and ensuring data protection guidelines.

Example: How does Nasa use crowdsourcing?

NASA has historically used crowdsourcing communities as a way to solve important problems and challenges that were difficult or impossible for its staff to solve. Examples of NASA crowdsourcing initiatives include the “Space Robotics Challenge” and the “NASA Tournament Lab”.

The “Space Robotics Challenge” is a competition aimed at improving the capabilities of robots in the space environment. Participants in the competition are challenged to develop solutions to a series of challenges related to the navigation, manipulation and repair of robots in the space environment.

The “NASA Tournament Lab” is a platform that helps NASA solve problems by posing them to a large community of volunteers who specialise in solving complex problems. Participants in the competition are asked to develop solutions to a series of challenges related to different areas of NASA’s missions, such as space exploration, exploration of other planets and space exploration.

Overall, NASA has used crowdsourcing as a valuable method to solve problems and develop new ideas. Using a crowdsourcing community provides NASA with the opportunity to tap into the creativity and knowledge of people from around the world, complementing the resources and skills of its own staff.

Why a crowdsourcing community can also be of enormous importance for start-up companies

As already described above, crowdsourcing is a very cost-effective method to find a large number of ideas and new solutions. Therefore, crowdsourcing is also very important for very young companies and start-ups. After all, not everyone who has a great business idea can immediately commission agencies or hire employees, as there is often a lack of budget here. Read on to find out why crowdsourcing can be very valuable, especially for start-ups.

Winning ideas despite lack of financial and human resources

Two of the main obstacles start-ups often face are a lack of manpower and a small budget. Most start-ups do not have the human resources available to significantly accelerate the time-to-market of new products and innovations. Start-ups usually do not have the budget to hire more staff or hire an agency. With crowdsourcing, start-ups can gain valuable ideas at a low cost. And members of crowdsourcing platforms not only provide ideas. Here, freelancers are also happy to offer active support, for example in the areas of web development, text or design. Crowdsourcing is an almost inexhaustible source!

Test product concepts as a start-up using a crowdsourcing community

On crowdsourcing platforms, start-ups can also find people who are very willing to test new products or evaluate product concepts. Start-ups do not have to hire a cost-intensive market research agency. If you have a finished product that you would like to have tested, then you are guaranteed to find someone in a crowdsourcing community who will test your products and give you honest feedback on them.

Conducting surveys and market research studies through crowdsourcing

Market research is hugely important for any business. For established companies as well as for start-ups. But here, too, there is often a lack of the necessary financial resources to launch surveys or market research studies. Many start-ups therefore turn to a crowdsourcing community. Either the members of the crowdsourcing platform take part in surveys or studies voluntarily and free of charge. Or you incentivise the community members so that they are more willing to participate. Paid surveys are a great way to quickly get the data you need to make important business decisions.

mypinio’s Survey Wall contains an infinite number of paid surveys that are answered by the crowd. The paid surveys also appear automatically in the user’s timeline, which ensures a high level of attention. Use crowdsourcing to gain data from surveys!

Which known crowdsourcing projects existed or already exist?

There are many well-known crowdsourcing community projects that are used in different areas, e.g.:

• Wikipedia: The online encyclopaedia created and maintained by a large community of volunteers.
• OpenStreetMap: A free, community-created map of the world, edited by many people.
• SETI@home: A project where volunteers use their computers to search for extraterrestrial life.
• Citizen Science: A project in which lay people participate in scientific projects, e.g. by collecting data or testing hypotheses.
• Google Maps: Google’s online map that is updated by users to improve the accuracy and completeness of information.
• Mechanical Turk: An Amazon marketplace where companies outsource small tasks to freelancers that need to be done by humans, such as reviewing data or transcribing audio recordings.
• InnoCentive: A marketplace where companies post scientific or technical challenges that volunteers can participate in to develop solutions.
• Threadless: This online clothing and accessories shop uses crowdsourcing by collecting designs from artists around the world and creating products from them.
• Zooniverse: This Citizen Science platform allows people around the world to participate in science projects and collect data.
• 99designs: This platform offers companies the opportunity to announce design competitions and submit designs by freelancers from all over the world.

What are the biggest advantages of a crowdsourcing community?

Crowdsourcing can offer many benefits, including:

• Cost savings: Crowdsourcing allows companies to delegate tasks to a large number of people instead of doing them in-house. This can lead to cost savings as companies do not need to hire or pay employees to complete the tasks.
• Faster results: Crowdsourcing can also help complete projects faster as many people can work on solving a problem at the same time.
• Wide range of skills and perspectives: A crowdsourcing community consists of many people with different skills, experiences and perspectives. This can help to ensure that problems are looked at from different angles and that creative solutions are developed.
• Increasing brand awareness: Crowdsourcing can help increase a company’s brand awareness by increasing interaction with the public and encouraging participation from customers and prospects.
• Increasing employee motivation: Crowdsourcing can also help to increase employee motivation by giving them the opportunity to participate in exciting projects and contribute their skills and ideas.

Use mypinio as a crowdsourcing community

A crowdsourcing community is an online platform that makes it very easy to collect great ideas and data from paid surveys or studies or to assign small tasks. A crowdsourcing platform or crowdsourcing community lives from its members and their engagement. Since mypinio is a unique hybrid approach of social media platform and market research community, we have a variety of engagement tools that reward and incentivise special activity within the community, for example with monetary payments or vouchers. In addition, a timeline, as known from Facebook or LinkedIn, ensures that our members are always directly aware of the latest surveys or crowdsourcing requests. This ensures a high level of attention. Companies find much more than just good ideas on mypinio. Here you can also find influencers, brand ambassadors and participants for paid surveys and studies. Use the mypinio universe as an engaged and creative crowdsourcing community and harness the accumulated intelligence of the crowd. Join now.

Keywords of this blog post

crowdsourcing | crowdsourcing community | crowdsourcing platform