Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing—From Building All-Round Capabilities to Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing

Abstract

Wreckage searching can be crowdsourced? In March 2014, four days after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 had gone missing, DigitalGlobe, an American satellite mapping company, set up Tomnod, a crowd-sourcing initiative, encouraging internet users to scan and tag images of more than 1200 mi² of ocean to locate the missing plane. Each online volunteer was given some satellite images and directions to tag any suspicious hints, floating objects or airplane wreckage. An algorithm would tally all of the tags, note any areas of the ocean that consistently attracted attention and then pass over the findings to governments involved in the rescue efforts. Unexpectedly 25,000 users signed up within a single day, crashing the website.

In 10 to 15 years, organizations may be outsourcing all work that is “supportive” rather than revenue-producing.

—Peter Drucker

Thus, the Third Industrial Revolution is best seen as the combination of digital manufacturing and personal manufacturing: the industrialization of the Maker Movement.

—Chris Anderson

Crowdsourcing is not just a business possibility; it is the business model of the future.

—Jeff Howe