Crowdsourcing Discussion

Discussion

Spring 2025

Benefits and Opportunities:

My favorite instance of crowdsourcing comes in the form of mapping, from Open Street Map (OSM). OSM is used as both a basemap for mapping software, as well as crowd-sourced information on a geo-spatial scale. Think Google Maps but populated by the community.

One unique way open source mapping has been used was during the earthquakes in Haiti. Volunteers from across the world would collect datapoints and reports from Haiti and map areas or people in need for rescue and aid workers to find.

There are also institutions and organizations that utilize crowdsourced information to conduct research. The Audubon is a good example of collecting information such as bird sightings from the community. Other wildlife research groups conduct similar activities.


Challenges and Limitations:

Any opensource/crowdsource platform is open to many challenges and limitations. Primarily, it can be difficult if not impossible to verify the accuracy of the information, depending on the situation. This may not seem like a big deal in some scenarios, but could have serious ramifications in others.

One way to combat these problems is by having some form of content moderation. In the case of platforms like Wikipedia, the community can check each other's work, and report any perceived inaccuracies. That is not foolproof, though, as competing interests and ideas can still be declared without sufficient verification or per review.



https://www.openstreetmap.org/aboutLinks to an external site.

https://www.wikipedia.org/Links to an external site.