Do you prefer working in groups or working by yourself? Working with others has many advantages, such as having access to different opinions and new information that you can use to make the end product better. The internet also has a process where people can work together- crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the process of getting large amounts of input or information from people on the internet.

Many businesses use the “crowd” for projects in many different ways. Some companies use crowdsourcing for feedback. An example of this would be a survey that a company sends to receive opinions on many topics. Meanwhile, other companies use crowdsourcing for employment. Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft crowdsource a labor force. These companies use individual drivers with their cars to provide service to their customers at any time. Ridesharing drivers do not have any connection to other drivers or the business except through their input of driving customers. Additional examples of companies outside the ridesharing world who crowdsource labor include Airbnb. Finally, crowdsourcing can solve problems and collect content. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is a crowdsourced tool as many editors can edit encyclopedia entries. Crowdsourcing gives Wikipedia more material because they are not limited to a small set of editors who can not write on every topic.

Another sect of crowdsourcing is to collect money. Collecting money via crowdsourcing is known as crowdfunding. Crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe allow people to raise funds for various causes and then allows their users to donate money to these causes.

Like any process, there are pros and cons to crowdsourcing. One of the biggest pros of crowdsourcing is that it is cheaper than hiring an employee. It can even be free when people are participating for personal interests. This monetary benefit is what draws many startup companies or generally companies who do not have large budgets. Additionally, crowdsourcing can also help spark new, original ideas. A crowd will have more diverse experiences and perspectives, causing more unique ideas. However, a homogenous group of employees might struggle to spark original ideas through a brainstorming process. Although, there are also some drawbacks when crowdsourcing. It is possible that crowdsourcing could lead to more quantity rather than quality. When crowdsourcing, there might be hundreds of mediocre results and close to no quality responses. Using a stable force of employees will be more likely to produce quality content versus something a company doesn’t want to use. Secondly, it is possible that crowdsourcing will not always get what is wanted. For example, a company using crowdsourcing to generate ideas or solve problems may want to go in a different direction than what the crowd is submitting. Crowdsourcing is a process that can improve the tech industry to new heights in various aspects, but it also poses risks that companies should evaluate.