Thanks
to the advent of social networking, sources of information are no longer
limited to professionals (i.e. scholars, authors, journalists.) Rather, a
common person with internet access is capable to contributing their insight or
personal expertise to the vast array of information available. Because of this,
it is now possible to present problems, questions, or requests to internet
users to gain information in a practice known as “crowdsourcing.” I did some
reading (articles posted below) and found a couple of reasons as to why
crowdsourcing is beneficial and also how we as internet users can help to
propagate its existence.
The
benefits of crowdsourcing are available to both internet users who post the information and
those who make use of it. In the sense of the common internet user, crowdsourcing
offers opportunities to increase one’s social capital by connecting them more
easily to others who may be in need of their knowledge and/or skill set. In
the sense of those looking for information, crowdsourcing can make the search
process considerably quicker and cheaper, and in some cases yields more
accurate results. For example, it was found that overall, conclusions that are
made by a group of average people are generally more accurate than those made
by a few experts in that field.
All
of this being said, it is easy to see why crowdsourcing is a practice that we
want to maintain. In a study conducted with Youtube channels, it was
demonstrated that the makers of videos that received more views had a far
greater chance of continuing to produce content than those whose videos had received
fewer or decreasing views. This makes the method for preserving crowdsourcing a
simple one: participation. Participating in crowdsourcing, whether by putting
your knowledge or content out there or by absorbing that of others, is the only
way to keep it going. Whether this means reading a blog post, watching a
Youtube video, or upvoting a meme on Reddit, the goal is to make sure that adequate
attention is being given to those whose internet activity makes them a
potential valuable contributor to crowdsourcing.
Sources:
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