Galaxy Zoo Citizen Sort | Citizen Science Video Gaming Icelanders approve their crowdsourced constitution — European technology news These kickass games let you do real-life science I like that there's all these games out there that actually contribute to real science. It's nice to know that I'm Contributing to Science! But they all end the same way: I just spent 25 minutes mapping craters on the moon, and that's enough for this month. While I used a crowd sourced example, the same can be said for most of these games. I haven't tried them all, so maybe one is, like, super-duper awesome. But mostly they're ... kinda ... boring. I'm not doing science. What I want to see is a 'truer' citizen science website, something that allows your average Jane or Joe to come up with questions, propose testable hypothesis, and carry out experiments. I think it would be great if there was a place for people to go where they can ask these sorts of silly questions, formulate hypothesis, make predictions, and test them.
Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing is a sourcing model in which individuals or organizations obtain goods and services. These services include ideas and finances, from a large, relatively open and often rapidly-evolving group of internet users; it divides work between participants to achieve a cumulative result. The word crowdsourcing itself is a portmanteau of crowd and outsourcing, and was coined in 2005.[1][2][3][4] As a mode of sourcing, crowdsourcing existed prior to the digital age (i.e. "offline").[5] There are major differences between crowdsourcing and outsourcing. Some forms of crowdsourcing, such as in "idea competitions" or "innovation contests" provide ways for organizations to learn beyond the "base of minds" provided by their employees (e.g. Definitions[edit] The term "crowdsourcing" was coined in 2005 by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, editors at Wired, to describe how businesses were using the Internet to "outsource work to the crowd",[1] which quickly led to the portmanteau "crowdsourcing."
Solve Puzzles for Science | Foldit Microwork Microwork is a series of small tasks which together comprise a large unified project, and are completed by many people over the Internet. [1] [2] Microwork is considered the smallest unit of work in a virtual assembly line. [3] It is most often used to describe tasks for which no efficient algorithm has been devised, and require human intelligence to complete reliably. The term was developed in 2008 by Leila Chirayath Janah of Samasource. [4] [5] Microtasking[edit] Microtasking is the process of splitting a job into its component microwork and distributing this work over the Internet. Good candidates for microtasks have the following characteristics: they are large volume tasks, they can be broken down into tasks that are done independently, and they require human judgement.[6] Microtasks are distinguished from macrotasks which typically can be done independently, they require a fixed amount of time and they require a specialized skill. Services[edit] Uses[edit] Advantages[edit]
The central platform for crowdsourcing US Government challenges, contests, competitions and open innovation prizes | Challenge.gov Solver Develops Solution to Help Clean Up Remaining Oil From the 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Boston, MA and Cordova, AK - November 7, 2007 - InnoCentive, the leader in prize-based Open Innovation sourcing, is helping to make a positive impact on Environmental Conservation by working with the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI) and other conservation groups. OSRI has posted 3 Challenges on the InnoCentive website, all dealing with oil spill recovery issues. The first of these challenges was solved last week by an oil industry outsider who used his expertise in the concrete industry to come up with the winning solution. John Davis, an InnoCentive Solver from the Central United States, was awarded $20,000 for his creative solution. This first OSRI Challenge required a method for separating oil from water on oil recovery barges after the oil and water had frozen to a viscous mass. InnoCentive is changing the face of R&D for corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profits by employing their prize-based method to engage innovators in many industries from around the world.
Crowdsourcing improves predictive texting - tech - 25 February 2012 SMARTPHONES may soon get a lot better at finishing your sentences for you - with the help of words and phrases gleaned from crowdsourcing. The software packages in today's phones often struggle with texts and voice commands if a user attempts words or phrases that aren't included in the phone's database. To see if the crowd could help, Keith Vertanen of Montana Tech in Butte and Per Ola Kristensson at the University of St Andrews, UK, called upon workers of the Amazon Mechanical Turk. The plan was to try and improve a predictive system used in Augmented and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, which help disabled people to communicate by painstakingly typing out words interpreted from their muscle twitches or blinks. The researchers paid 298 Mechanical Turk workers to imagine phrases they might need if they had motor neuron disease or cerebral palsy. The result is a system that needs 11 per cent fewer keystrokes than a standard AAC device. New Scientist Not just a website! (YouTube)
ADULLACT - Mutualisation de logiciels libres pour institutionnels Cairns Blog: Crowdsourcing Governance [Video intro ends at 52 seconds; Intro by Dr. Gref ends at 2'18; Speech ends at 11'15; then Q&A] For Prime Minister Putin's presentation, click here. Crowdsourcing Governance We’ve heard today that as individuals we are smarter collaborating together than working alone. Collaboration makes businesses more successful. Challenges To do so, we have three challenges we must first overcome: 1. 2. 3. Solutions I would argue that collaboration is more important for government than for business in these very tough economic times, because it enables government to deliver better services for less money and more democratically. First, crowdsourcing is a serious solution to serious problems. 1. 2. 3. Second, designed right, these are not experimental projects. Previously, I had some experience creating a platform called Peer to Patent, in which we connected volunteer scientists and technologists to the national patent offices. Closing This is not about the technology. It’s about asking questions.