Crowdsourcing Strategies that Governments Use
In cafes, bars, restaurants and living rooms in towns and cities all over the world we bemoan the political classes and systems of governments. We blame them for many of the difficulties that befall society.
Whether or not they are to blame or how much is hugely debatable, but one thing is clear as the Government Executive magazine points out in a recent article – more than ever before the public are involving themselves in local, regional and federal government.
Thanks to open innovation and crowdsourcing, citizens are having their say and providing novel solutions to improve our lot.
The article highlights four strategic approaches to crowdsourcing. They are:
Knowledge Discovery and Management – i.e. for gathering information and reporting problems such as potholes in roads and earth tremors, as well as cataloguing conditions of areas such as public parks and waste grounds.
Distributed Human Intelligence and Tasking – this is useful when human intelligence is smarter than the machines. For example, in 2012, 150,000 people volunteered to help the US National Archives electronically tag more than 130 million items from the 1940 Census records.
Broadcast Search – this involves providing a reward for a challenge solution, for example the diverse challenges on the Challenge.gov platform.
Peer-Vetted Creative Production – typically this crowdsourcing approach involves a public vote on an idea such as a piece of artwork for a town center. Or as was the case with the Next Stop Design project, a bus shelter. Citizens were tasked with designing the shelter and then selecting the one they liked the most.
To read the article in full, click here.
Add your Comment
[LOGIN FIRST] if you're already a member.fields are required.