The article I have chosen for this week is Crowdsourcing: Global search and the twisted power of consumers and producers by Robert M. Bauer and Thomas Gegenhuber. It was published in the september 2015 issue of Organization (volume. 22-5; journal impact score 1.9).
The article uses the development of the first Linux operating system as an example of introducing the concept of crowdsourcing in a technological context, specifically how Linus Torvalds' initial source code eventually attracted tens of thousands of volunteered that contributed to develop it into the versatile OS that it is today.
As for the general concept of crowdsourcing and its success throughout the years, two major factors are being quantified: first, the amount of projects realized through crowdsourcing; and second, the amount of funds raised over a set period of time. As such projects are usually organized through a limited number of channels (most notably Kickstarter and Indiegogo), statistics are easily obtainable and comparable.
The quantative aspect, however, only forms the base on assessing the value and potential of crowdsourcing as a whole. To get to a useful conclusion in illustrating the power of consumers and producers in this process, the researchers combine it with qualitative information on alternative funding methods that might have otherwise funded the same projects, as well as the expendability of the role of individual contributors in the big picture of the projects.
This information is, however, almost by definition, the result of a manually decided-upon sample, seeing as obtaining such details from a large amount of projects is impossible in practice. Quantative methods, combined with these samples, help justify this limited scope, and put the qualitative results within a broader context that includes all other projects as well.
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