Kudos or Critics of the Crowd?
Crowdsourcing has received plenty of publicity this summer, both positive a not so positive. This month Google received criticism for relying too much on input from the crowd to provide content for Google Places. The New York Times recently reported on incidents in which businesses have been reported as being closed on the Google Maps local search service.
A business listing on Google Places typically contains the address, map, business description and possibly links to the site or reviews. But what’s causing trouble is a section titled “report a problem” which has the option to report “this place is permanently closed.” If enough users click it, the business is labeled “reportedly closed” and later, pending a review by Google, “permanently closed.”
The feature was meant to allow users to correct potential emissions by owners who fail to update a listing when a business closes. But the false reports, whether done by pranksters or competitors, enough businesses have complained of this occurrence to cause Google to pursue changes.
On the other hand, another big crowdsourced project has received more positive attention this summer. A movie compiled of YouTube videos of volunteers has received overall positive reviews. To create “Life in a Day”, filmmakers asked for anyone in the world to film part of their day on July 24th, 2010 and submit the footage. They received 80,000 submissions from 192 countries, resulting in nearly 5,000 hours of content. On the review site Rotten Tomatoes the film received an average score of 7 out of 10 from critics and 4 out of 5 from the audience of more than ten thousand. However, opinions were also very conflicting, ranging from “it strives awfully hard for depth but, more often than not, comes off too shallow” to it “comes together as something that is unique, inspirational and occasionally profound.”
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