Estellés Arolas and González -Ladrón-de-Guevara (2012) have consolidated more than 200 definitions of crowdsourcing, concluding that crowdsourcing is ‘a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a non-profit organization, or a company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking of a task.‘

The term crowd defines a large group of users who ‘prefer sharing and discussing own ideas, innovations, opinions with public‘ (Hippel & Finkenstein 1979). As James Surowiecki states, the best solutions come from ‘diverse people with different knowledge and expertise‘: But which factors motivate the crowd to collaborate? Could that be extrinsic factors, as payment, or as Bill Cope says, institutional rewards? Or is it more intrinsic motivation that makes the crowd enhance their engagement? According to the self-determination theory, developed by Ryan & Deci in 2000, people tend to be motivated by their inherent growth and psychological needs. An important role here plays the feeling of relatedness, which is a need for a safe, warm and caring atmosphere in the crowdsourcing communities.

I have experienced this feeling of belonging/relatedness myself, being a member of a world-wide community of breastfeeding mothers, the Milk coffee house. It is a Facebook group, where Russian speaking mothers can get help in issues related to breastfeeding. I have witnessed a few examples of extrinsic motivation in the group, e.g. a psychologist and a fitness trainer who have organized so called marathons for members for free, but later they invited mothers to try out their paid services. But the leading motivation for participation in the group is definitely an intrinsic one. In case you have troubles with your child, you can ask for help even at night, and your get advice from experienced breastfeeding specialists or just mothers of multiple kids. You get useful links from your groupmates, they share videos and even organize meet-ups all over the world.

Or, the other way around, you see a post of a desperate mother and then you share your experience with her. The best reward you get is to receive feedback that your advice helped and the child sleeps well or recovers well. All members of the group profit from this kind of collaborative intelligence, getting and giving the knowledge they have.

One other great example of implementing a crowdsourcing model by companies is a platform, created by Lego for its fans. On this platform, fans were able to propose Lego-specific ideas, and, if positively evaluated, the company actually implemented them. Schlagwein and Bjørn-Andersen summarize the benefits of crowdsourcing for Lego in a clearly arranged table.

On base of their analysis, Schlagwein and Bjørn-Andersen argue that crowdsourcing is ‘a legitimate form of organizational learning that is not just a “cheaper” form of traditional, employee-based organizational learning but is a substantially different…type of organizational learning.‘

References

Estellés-Arolas, Enrique; González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, Fernando (2012), "Towards an Integrated Crowdsourcing Definition" (PDF), Journal of Information Science.

Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist.

Schlagwein, Daniel; Bjørn-Andersen, Niels (2014), "Organizational Learning with Crowdsourcing: The Revelatory Case of LEGO" (PDF), Journal of the Association for Information Systems.