What is Crowdsourcing?
At this point, you might be wondering what is crowdsourcing. Great question! 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 vi
a the Internet. It is a kind of service model in which individuals or organizations receive contributions from internet users in order to obtain needed services or ideas. Crowdsourcing can either take an explicit or an implicit route. Explicit crowdsourcing lets users work together to evaluate, share, and build different specific tasks, while implicit crowdsourcing means that users solve a problem as a side effect of something else they are doing. Due to the wide definition of crowdsourcing, the practice is used in numerous formats across a wide variety of categories. Here are some forms of crowdsourcing you might recognize, crowd voting, crowd solving, crowdfunding, microwork, creative crowdsourcing, crowdsource workforce management, and inducement prize contests. While many of these terms might be unfamiliar you no doubt know of many companies and organizations that use crowdsourcing in some form. For instance, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia, Reddit, GoFundMe, and Uber, all use forms of crowdsourcing.
The Origins of Crowdsourcing
The Crowdsourcing model that is, specifically, relying on the contributions of others isn’t a new concept that came about due to the invention of the internet, libraries, early competitions, genealogy research, and census info, all pioneered models on which crowdsourcing is based. Crowdsourcing caught on in the 1990s with the popularization of the internet, collaboration became more easily accessible to a wider array of people. Due to the presence of numerous forms of crowdsourcing before the invention of the internet, it is unlikely that hard technological determinism is a factor in the effect that crowdsourcing has on our society. In fact, Technological somnambulism appears to be a more apt expression of the influence that technology has over us. Technological somnambulism is a term created by Professor Langdon Winner. Winner puts forth the idea that we are simply in a state of sleepwalking in our meditations with technology. One of the primary causes is the way we view technology as tools, something that can be put down and picked up again. Because of this view of objects as something we can easily separate ourselves from we fail to look at the long-term implications of using that object.
Crowdfunding
One of the most well-known forms of crowdsourcing is crowdfunding, which is an alternative source of finance. Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people. 
Although the concept can also be executed through mail-order subscriptions, benefit events, and other methods, it is now often performed via online platforms such as GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Patreon. This modern crowdfunding model is generally based on three types of factors: the initiator who proposes the idea or project to be funded, individuals or groups who support the idea, and the platform that brings the parties together to launch the idea. Crowdfunding has been used to fund a wide range of business ideas, artistic projects, and medical expenses, as well as many other ideas.
Below is an example of a crowdfunding in action!
Controversies in crowdsourcing
As one might expect with any commonly used practice, there has been some controversy. For instance, contributors not being guaranteed minimum wage, the impact on product quality, and the value and impact of the work received from the crowd. One of the latest controversies is over the implications of sick people now having health insurance and being forced to crowdsource their healthcare in order to survive. The podcast below has more on the story.
Privacy and Technology
Lastly, you as a concerned reader might wonder, what can go wrong as well as right? What are the major short and long run risks associated with the technology and the likelihood of their occurring? Well, so far there have been many concerns over the problems associated with the various forms of crowdsourcing, namely the possibility for abuse of funds, fraud, and scams. But 
these are the short-term risks, long term there are many variables to predict future outcomes. The use of the crowdsourcing model is too multifaced to predict the possible ramifications of future interaction. The dystopian future of the film, Matrix, could happen and we are all enslaved by the machines we ourselves created, or possibly just as easily a utopia could occur as a result of proper investment and application of this practice. Ideally more government regulation will be able to assuage the concerns of critics believing that our freedoms are being taken away in the name of protecting our national security. Now on this happy note, this seems like a natural conclusion to complete this blog entry.
Bibliography
Schenk, Eric; Guittard, Claude (2009). Crowdsourcing: What can be Outsourced to the Crowd, and Why
Howe, Jeff (2008), “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business” (PDF), The International Achievement Institute.
Winner, Langdon. “Technologies as Forms of Life“. Readings in the Philosophy of Technology. David M. Kaplan. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004
DeVun, Leah (November 19, 2009). “Looking at how crowds produce and present art.”. Wired News.
“Cambridge Judge Business School: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance”. Jbs.cam.ac.uk.
Barnett, Chance (June 9, 2015). “Trends Show Crowdfunding To Surpass VC In 2016”. Forbes.