Chapter 23

Ten Crowdsourcing Blunders to Avoid

In This Chapter

arrow Preparing for the crowd’s mistakes

arrow Protecting yourself from failure with a trial run

arrow Guarding your reputation

The basic idea behind crowdsourcing is simple. You have a problem that you can’t solve by yourself or work that’s too much for you to do. You turn to the crowd and ask the crowd for assistance. If you ask in the right way, the crowd comes to your aid and all’s as right as can be.

However, obvious crowdsourcing blunders exist, roots along the path that can trip the unsuspecting crowdsourcer. But forewarned is forearmed, so steer well clear of the following mistakes as you prepare for your first attempt at crowdsourcing.

Thinking Crowdsourcing Is Easy

Hubris brought down the Greeks and it can also bring down the crowdsourcer. If you think that crowdsourcing is so easy that you don’t have to pay attention to details, then you are overconfident and heading for a fall.

example.eps Liang, a graduate student in psychology, learned about crowdsourcing as he was doing his doctoral study. Assured by other students that crowdsourcing ...

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