The crowd in crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing as a pragmatic research method

摘要

Crowdsourcing, as a digital process employed to obtain information, ideas, and solicit contributions of work, creativity, etc., from large online crowds stems from business, yet is increasingly used in research. Engaging with previous literature and a symposium on academic crowdsourcing this study explores the underlying assumptions about crowdsourcing as a potential academic research method and how these affect the knowledge produced. Results identify crowdsourcing research as research?about?and?with?the crowd, explore how tasks can be?productive, reconfiguring, and?evaluating, and how these are linked to?intrinsic?and?extrinsic?rewards, we also identify three types of platforms:?commercial platforms, research-specific platforms, and?project specific platforms. Finally, the study suggests that crowdsourcing is a digital method that could be considered a?pragmatic?method; the challenge of a sound crowdsourcing project is to think about the researcher’s relationship to the crowd, the tasks, and the platform used.