Exploring Crowdsourcing and Ecosystems: Module 3 Assignment

This assignment analyzes the concept of "the crowd" and its application in business, specifically focusing on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platforms. The solution explores various websites, including Innocentive, 99 Designs, P&G Connect & Develop, Quirky, Experiment, Threadless, Zooniverse, and Kickstarter, examining how each utilizes the crowd to achieve its goals. The assignment differentiates between crowdsourcing, which involves obtaining content, services, or ideas from a large group, and crowdfunding, which specifically focuses on raising funds from a crowd. Examples like Threadless and Kickstarter are used to illustrate these concepts, providing a clear understanding of how businesses leverage the crowd for innovation, design, and funding. The assignment highlights the role of the internet in facilitating these processes and provides a comprehensive overview of the crowd's impact on various industries.

Module 3
Student’s name
Date
Institution Affiliation(s)

Question 1
Innocentive - (Innocentive, n.d.)
Question 2
Website
Innocentive Crowdsource - The website helps innovative organizations in solving their
technological, business artificial intelligence or data challenges by
connecting them to a network of experts from all over the world.
99 Designs Designers can use this website for crowdsourcing their graphic designs like
logos.
P&G Connect &
Develop
The website helps to initiate partnerships to meet P&G’s business,
technology, or product’s needs. This is crowdsourcing.
Quirky The website is committed to generating and later selling concepts and ideas
that are produced and later voted on by the crowd. This is a form of
crowdsourcing.
Threadless This is a T-shirt company based in Chicago. Their t-shirt designs are
created and submitted by millions of members of its community, after
which they are voted on and the winning design gets produced.
Zooniverse The Zooniverse creates opportunities for people to contribute as well as get
answers
Question 3
Website
Experiment Helps in crowdfunding for scientific research and
experiments
Kickstarter A crowdfunding platform that allows people to
contribute money in exchange for rewards.
Question 4
If you put something on eBay, you are crowdsourcing. This could be a service where you offer to
do something for people either for money or for free, a product such as a movie, song, or a book,
among other things.
Crowdsourcing can be explained as the process of attaining content, services, or ideas by
lobbying assistance from a multitude of people and especially from the internet as opposed to
using traditional ways of asking for help from suppliers or employees. A good example of
crowdsourcing is Threadless where t-shirt designs are submitted, voted by the crowd and the
winning design gets produced (skinnkyCorp 2019). On the other hand, crowdfunding is a special
type of crowdsourcing where people, either individuals or small ventures, can solicit funds from
a crowd. For instance, the Experiment website is a crowdfunding platform where scientific

research and experiments are funded (Experiment 2019). Another example of crowdfunding
websites is Kickstarter where the platform allows people to contribute their funds while in turn,
they receive gifts and rewards
In summary, crowdsourcing can be said to be the obtaining of anything from the crowd,
especially via the internet ranging from ideas, services, content or products, while crowdsourcing
is a specific type of crowdsourcing where funds or money is sourced from a crowd.
Word count: 403 words