Crowdsourcing For Dummies

Learn to: Plan and launch your crowdsourcing project Find the right platform for your needs Promote your project and attract the right audience Manage and motivate your crowd to get the best results Learn how to harness people power for an unbeatable competitive edge! Netflix used it to improve its ability to predict customers' movie ratings. L'Oreal used it to create a television advert for a tiny fraction of what it would've cost ordinarily. Dell used it to generate thousands of new product ideas and improvements. And now in Crowdsourcing For Dummies , David Alan Grier demonstrates how you can tap into the awesome power of the crowd. Discover how to use crowdsourcing to solve complex business problems and complete difficult tasks, supercharge innovation and new product development, build brand identity and boost productivity and profits. Hit the ground running – quickly get up to speed on basic crowdsourcing concepts and technologies and discover how to develop a surefire crowdsourcing strategy Know your options – find out about all forms of crowdsourcing, including crowdcontests, crowdfunding, macrotasking, microtasking and self-organised crowds Locate the best crowdsourcing platforms – know where to look for your crowd, identify the right audience and promote your project to them Manage your crowd with confidence – find out how to communicate with your crowd and keep them interested and motivated Keep the wheels spinning – learn how to manage the crowdsourcing process, and troubleshoot common problems Get in with the in-crowd – learn from ten of the best crowdsourcing success stories Open the book and find: Ways to make crowdsourcing work for your business The lowdown on conducting market research and analysing data How to raise funds through a crowdfunding project Techniques for engaging people with your company or product Advice on designing tasks for your crowd to tackle Pointers for finding the perfect platform and audience How to keep your crowd motivated

Introduction 1 Part I: Understanding Crowdsourcing Basics 7 Chapter 1: People Power: Getting a Feel for Crowdsourcing 9 Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Forms of Crowdsourcing and Crowdmarkets 19 Chapter 3: Infiltrating the Crowd 29 Chapter 4: Joining the Crowdforce 43 Part II: Looking at the Different Forms of Crowdsourcing 61 Chapter 5: Creating Crowdcontests 63 Chapter 6: Raising Money with Crowdfunding 79 Chapter 7: Making Use of Macrotasks 99 Chapter 8: Managing with Microtasks 125 Chapter 9: Combining the Intelligence of Self–Organised Crowds 145 Part III: Building Skill 161 Chapter 10: Engaging the Crowd with Your Project 163 Chapter 11: Instructing the Crowd 175 Chapter 12: Crowdsourcing with Social Media 187 Chapter 13: Picking Your Platform 203 Chapter 14: Managing Your Crowd 221 Chapter 15: Learning on the Job 241 Part IV: Getting All You Can Get from the Crowd 257 Chapter 16: Combining Microtasks and Preparing Workflow 259 Chapter 17: Crowd Reporting: Using the Crowd to Gather Information and News 273 Chapter 18: Initiating Innovation 287 Chapter 19: Preparing Your Organisation 309 Part V: The Part of Tens 317 Chapter 20: Following the Future of Crowdsourcing: Ten (Or So) Websites to Watch 319 Chapter 21: Ten Best Practices to Adopt 329 Chapter 22: Ten Success Stories 335 Chapter 23: Ten Crowdsourcing Blunders to Avoid 343 Index 353

David Alan Grier is a writer, teacher and consultant on labour, technology, communication and management. He is Associate Professor at George Washington University, where he teaches International Science and Technology Policy. He is also the 2013 President of the IEEE Computer Society.