What is open source software, you may ask?

Open source software is software released to the general public for free which effectively allows developers to access the source code, modify it, and redistribute the software again.

The benefits of open source software heavily outweigh traditional software; these benefits include increased transparency, greater flexibility in the final direction of the software, as well preventing the chance of creating a software monopoly which hurts the industry.

The greatest benefit, however, is this; the mass adoption of open source software has resulted in over $60 billion saved per year for consumers which is an incredibly economical alternative.

The increasing interest in open source development has its downsides, unfortunately. The most common problem is that there is a lack of incentive for developers to work on open source projects.

In many cases, developers are not expected to be paid at all for maintaining open source software!

Because of this, many open source projects fail because they fail to complete. The software may also lack the ability to maintain performance and activity because many developers struggle to find time to work on the project.

Companies may also exploit the system by explicitly forcing developers to work on open source software without any compensation in mind.

FundRequest is an innovative decentralized platform designed to solve the issues of the open source industry.

Many developers use up their valuable time for free in open source software which is not an ideal system.

Instead, FundRequest aims to make the system more efficient for developers by creating some sort of a crowdfunding system with the Ethereum blockchain.

In FundRequest, developers can address bugs and work on open-source software while programmers solve bugs–all of this can be done for rewards in the form of cryptocurrencies.

FundRequest is more than just a premium bug bounty platform, though.

What they are trying to do is to introduce a radical approach towards open source development that benefits both the developers who are creating the code as well as the organizations who will use the code in their programs.

The simplicity of the FundRequest platform allows users to pay developers to find issues in their program even if they know a thing about coding without any coding knowledge; developers can also find issues related to their skill set which provides an alternative source of income for them.

All in all, the platform aims to provide value to everyone. For example, with FundRequest, businesses can have enterprise-grade levels of tech support without the attached enterprise-grade costs.

FundRequest will include a global decentralized platform where contributors are compensated for their efforts on any open source project.

All payments and payouts are dealt directly with the individual, with all payments done on the Ethereum blockchain without any need for intermediaries like banks.

Here is how the platform works:

Making a funding request

The first version of FundRequest will only accept FND tokens, the platform’s cryptocurrency, to fund a request.

As the platform develops, FundRequest will accept funds from other cryptocurrencies like ETH or BTC or non-crypto assets like PayPal.

To start a funding request, registered users will have to download the FundRequest browser plugin button. For each Github request, users can then fund the issue and specify how much they want to fund.

When a fund request is confirmed, the transaction amount is sent to the Ethereum blockchain where it will be validated and processed automatically.

A smart contract is then generated which is then used to identify allocated funds until the contract’s conditions have been met.

Solving A Request

Issues in funding requests are solved by developers who either provide the best answer or solution to the issue.

The contributor who offered the best solution will be notified automatically and can then collect his or her bounty instantly.

Claiming The Bounty

Contributors who solve problems just need a press of the reward button to claim the allocated funds.

Once a transaction is accepted, the bounty for that request is transferred to the account immediately with help of smart contracts.

The FundRequest platform offers many advantages to all parties involved.

For developers

Developers are rewarded by getting paid for the work they deliver on open source and other software projects in the platform.

Since FundRequest is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses smart contracts to power transactions, developers do not have to worry about not being paid as funds are released automatically which guarantees payments.

Developers can also use issues requested by the community as a sign to see what needs to be improved in other software.

At the same time, FundRequest has a reputation system where developers can make their name through strings of successful bug fixes and good work.

In the case that you don’t want to accept rewards, the funds can be donated to charity!

For the community

FundRequest also supports the community in making the open source industry a better one.

As a member of the community, you’ll support developers by incentivizing their efforts in fixings bugs and software problems. Because of that, you’ll be indirectly supporting the growth of the open source software community.

For businesses

Since FundRequest is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses smart contracts, you’ll be able to build the software you want with great trust between you and the developers

Trust and security are also guaranteed with smart contracts which are contracts written in code that executes automatically when agreed terms are met.

FundRequest also bridges the gap between a total lack of support for your software and expensive services that can only be afforded by large corporations.

With FundRequest, you only pay for problems that arise in your software or changes that you want to be implemented.

This works similarly to a pay for what you want system; because of this, you have an active role in determining how your software looks like the end of the day which helps you a lot.

FundRequest will launch a token sale for the FND token

Token name: FND

Token base: Ethereum (ERC-20 compliant)

Token supply: 75,000,000

Token sale duration: Q1 2018

Token sale target: $15,000,000

Token exchange rate: 1800FND = 1 ETH

FundRequest’s Website

FundRequest’s whitepaper

The post FundRequest – The Decentralized Platform For Rewarding Open Source Contributions And Developments appeared first on ChipIn.

Each of these projects is remarkable in their own way, having successfully captured the imaginations of thousands and setting the standard for what great crowdfunding ideas are.

Yet, these projects they barely scrape the surface of innovation made in 2016. And just two months into the year, 2017 promises to be no different. With crowdfunding news and products continuing to pop up in mainstream conversation, you can say the power of the crowd has truly been unlocked.

From voice to virtual reality, here are five trends you need to keep an eye out for in the rest of 2017.

Top 6 Crowdfunding Trends for 2017

1. Voice-User Interfaces

Voice user interfaces are positioned as the next big thing in technology

While not a crowdfunded product, Amazon’s Echo maintained an impressive influence on the technology industry throughout 2016 with its innovative voice-user interface. Consumers adored its ease-of-use and ever-expanding utility while tech insiders fawned over how it pushed voice into territories it hadn’t been before. That influence was felt in the crowdfunding world as well through the many voice-controlled smart home systems and other devices that made waves.

With voice user interfaces positioned as the next big thing in technology in the same vein as the smartphone and artificial intelligence, there is no doubt voice will be integrated into a variety of different crowdfunded products going forward. A good example is L.U.C.Y., which goes the simple route of adding a massive touchscreen to everything that’s appealing about the Echo and building on top of its success.

Lucy adds a massive touchscreen to everything that’s appealing about the Echo

At the other end of the spectrum are products like the Senstone and Kai. The former is a wearable voice recorder powered by a user’s voice in conjunction with artificial intelligence to automatically organize and sync recorded thoughts to the cloud with just a tap.

The latter is a small attachment to any pair of glasses that adds a voice user interface that can facilitate calls, texts, and even Uber requests. While both use voice in different ways, what they have in common is a tiny form factor and the ability to integrate voice into everyday life, a combination which will be seen more of as 2017 continues to roll on.

2. Wireless Audio

It’s obvious wireless is the future judging from the constant innovation in the wireless audio space to Apple’s controversial removal of the headphone jack with last year’s iPhone 7. As such, wire hatred is a trend with its roots in 2016 that will ripple into 2017 as more companies explore everything possible.

The Vinci smart headphones are a great example of where wireless audio is going in 2017, combining artificial intelligence for a customized listening experience along with a touchscreen and voice capabilities for 21st-century control. What’s most important about Vinci, though, is its ability to transmit Hi-Fi quality audio over Bluetooth for the very best sound quality, a dream that has long been in the making for many consumers.

Vinci transmits Hi-Fi quality audio over Bluetooth for the very best sound quality,

While products like Vinci will take care of delivering Hi-Fi audio on the move, the HUB and ONEclassic do the same but in the home. While consumers expect Hi-Fi audio systems to be astronomically priced, these two products bring what are traditionally expensive purchases down to a manageable level.

The HUB streams Hi-Fi audio to any pair of headphones in the home, a perfect complement to the 4K televisions now found in many homes. The ONEclassic, on the other hand, is an attractively designed in-home speaker system boasting the type of premium audio quality found in systems many thousands of dollars more expensive. The result is a revolution in wireless audio that’s just getting started.

3. Gamification

The concept of gamification is a firm rejection of all the criticism video gaming has endured for decades. Key to the idea is the integration of fun to otherwise mundane, boring, or difficult tasks to make them hard to ignore and even fun to do. This helps create positive habits with far reaching benefits for users.

ti.ttle is a golf trainer that clips onto a golf club and helps calculate the distance and direction of the ball

In 2016, a few standout products incorporated the idea of gamification in both sports and fitness in order to help people improve their game or get fit faster. That trend continues in 2017 with three products signaling what we can expect. The ti.ttle is a golf trainer that clips onto a golf club and helps calculate the distance and direction of a ball after every swing.

By providing instant feedback anywhere, it increases a golfer’s motivation to practice. Similar to the ti.ttle is the ruggedly-designed Strike connected baseball, a tool any pitcher can use to compare different pitches, view activity history, compete with others and even complete achievements for a more gamified experience.

Nothing quite screams gamification, though, than actually playing a game. The Stealth core trainer is the perfect marriage of something most hate — exercise — with something everyone loves — video games. By challenging users to shoot an increasingly complex pattern of asteroids by rotating a balance board in a plank position, Stealth helps people get ripped through the concept of muscle confusion all while essentially distracting them.

Stealth challenges users to shoot an increasingly complex pattern of asteroids by rotating a balance board in a plank position

That’s the beauty of gamification: adding layers of information, fun and interactivity to activities that can otherwise be pretty tedious in the pursuit of positive results. The versatility of the concept means we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in many products throughout 2017.

4. Travel

The future in the travel category is filled with exciting surprises

Since the very beginning, travel has been a hugely popular category in the crowdfunding world precisely because there are an endless number of pain points traditional companies have yet to address. As such, folk everywhere have stepped in and, fueled by their own horrible travel experiences, created some of the most successful products ever to grace the crowdfunding world.

2016 saw a lot of these items gain mainstream recognition, and 2017 will no doubt follow in their trail. We’ve already seen products as varied as the AnyCafè Travel Brewer and the GeeFi Unlimited 4G and Wi-Fi Hotspot get funded and ship, proving how fertile the niche is just two months into the year and pointing towards a future in the travel category filled with exciting surprises.

Surprise overnight successes will no doubt play a role in the travel category narrative going forward. But, as always, established successes will influence future crowdfunding attempts. One example is the Travelmate, a connected piece of luggage inspired by the already successfully funded Bluesmart from 2014 that tracks on auto-follow capabilities. Another is the Sheer, a travel jacket with a cornucopia of features similar to that of the runaway 2015 success BAUBAX.

Whether inventors go for the next big hit or ride the coattails of 2016’s best travel products, there’s a lot to look forward to when it comes to crowdfunded travel products.

Mindfulness
Sence (Smartband)
Lief (Wearable)
WellBe (Smartband)

In this increasingly connected world, more and more people are feeling the stresses of a rapidly changing, modern environment. This creates a flurry of emotional states people have trouble grasping, leading to bigger problems down the road. This is exactly why the trend of mindfulness can be found everywhere: It arms people with the mental tools they weren’t taught so they can better understand themselves in relation to the world and ultimately reduce stress levels. Usually, certain mental and physical techniques are taught achieve this goal.

In 2016, the crowdfunding world sought to augment these more traditional mindfulness techniques with technology that plays a positive role in combating stress versus generating it. Three great examples are the WellBe, the Sence, and the Lief.

5. When two trends collide – Mindfulness meets Crowdfunding

WellBe not only prompts users throughout the day to take breaks, but also offers user personalized playlists of exercises

The WellBe is a combination heart rate monitor and mobile app that determine a wearer’s stress levels over time based on three factors: time, location, and people. By constantly gathering this data, WellBe not only prompts users throughout the day to take breaks but also offers user personalized playlists of exercises and classes guided by WellBe mentors to help control stress levels.

The Sence is similar in that it reads a user’s heart rate and serves up personal feedback to better manage stress but expands on the concept of mindfulness by also understanding 64 emotional states and acting as fitness band for exercise. Lief is the most conceptually interesting of the bunch.

As a wearable patch placed on a user’s torso, Lief tracks and optimizes your resiliency to stress by increasing natural heart rate variability (HRV), a biomarker of physical and psychological health. The device then vibrates when it senses a low HRV score, prompting users to follow along by breathing in sync with the device. After just three minutes, Lief can drastically reduce stress, all the while training users to naturally tap into the body’s own stress-fighting tools.

Lief is a wearable patch placed on a user’s torso that optimizes resiliency to stress

The mindfulness trend will no doubt continue being a popular one in 2017, a classic example of technology creating a problem to be solved with more technology. Only time will tell if the many products positioned to do so in 2017 actually succeed.

6. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality technology has rapidly innovated in many categories, from input to graphical fidelity.

With the unveiling of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, 2016 was a watershed year for virtual reality. And while both products experienced a few stumbles, it didn’t mean VR as a whole did. As a matter of fact, virtual reality technology has rapidly innovated in many categories, from input to graphical fidelity. As time passes, this positive change will accelerate, resulting in all manner of new virtual reality hardware and experiences.

New types of experiences to look out for will be those that push the bar even higher in terms of historic significance and novelty. Perfect examples are the Thresholds VR experience that transports users to the first major photography exhibition back in 1839 alongside the Hideaway Circus VR experience, a series of some of the best circus and dance acts located in the United States and Australia.

In the coming year, virtual reality will continue to take us to places we’ve never been and continue to fulfill one of the key promises of the technology.

Hideaway Circus features a series of some of the best circus and dance acts located in the United States and Australia

Another reason why virtual reality is exciting is the potential it has and the clever ways of using it that continue to spring up because of that potential. Case in point: Toronto-based GIMME360°, an apparel company that partners with charities to benefit people around the world.

Every piece of apparel purchased through them contains a RFID chip users can scan to see exactly where their money benefits, bridging the all-important emotional gap and making charity something to be experienced rather than something simply to write a check out for.

Virtual reality is all about bridging gaps, and 2017 will see products just like these continue to impress with how they go about doing that.

The post Top 6 Crowdfunding Trends for 2017 appeared first on ChipIn.

This year’s edition featured over 600 startups and corporations, many of which represented foreign companies from all over the globe: from USA to South Korea, 4YFN managed to draw in a lot of promising startups for over 700 present investors to support.

Also featured in this year’s 4YFN edition were the exciting “Pitch the Press” sessions, which saw entrepreneurs and reporters taking part in quick business pitching sessions, similar to speed dating. By the end of the event, 2400 pitches have taken place within 4 sessions.

Aleix Valls, the CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the company behind Mobile World Congress and 4 Years From Now, has announced a brand new event this year, namely 4YFN San Francisco. Emphasizing the success the event had on entrepreneurs worldwide, he remarked “the growth of the event in Barcelona, as well as the multitude of activities that 4YFN encompasses over the year, thanks to its presence in Shanghai, Tel Aviv and now in San Francisco”.

As is tradition, the event also hosted the 4YFN Awards, which rewards the most promising startups in several categories, named “Disrupted by Mobile”, “Internet of Things” and “Digital Media”.

The Disrupted by Mobile category rewards the most creative mobile solution for improving people’s lives. The winner in this category was London-based company WeFarm, which created a useful SMS-based program which allows farmers all over the world to connect with each other and share useful information. This program puts an emphasis on small-scale farmers located in remote areas without Internet connection, and is currently only available in Kenya, Uganda and Peru.

Another London-based winner was startup Hu:toma, which won the Internet of Things award for creating a unique marketplace which allows developers to create and sell learning systems for artificial intelligence and chatbots. While the platform isn’t ready for action yet, it shows a lot of promise, and will most likely speed up the evolution of artificial intelligence.

Finally, the winner of the Digital Media category is TheMotion, a company based in Madrid. The startup provides companies with a great online tool for creating multiple video ads for their products, making advertising virtually effortless. The company claims that their clients have had their click-througlick-through rates doubled since using their service, so it’s no surprise to see them winning an award.

4YFN 2017 also offered a great deal of keynote speeches from experienced and respected people such as the Director of Product Innovation for Growth & Acquisition of Netflix, Michael Spiegelman, the Global Manager EMEA of Alibaba, Terry von Bibra, the CEO of WPP Group, Sir Martin Sorell and the CTO of Just Eat, Fernando Fanton. Additionally, those present got to attend presentations from directors and employees of large companies, such as Facebook, Flipnote and PayPal.

Even though this year’s 4YFN Barcelona was a triumph for the organizers and attendees alike, the event was just the first in the 4YFN yearly schedule. With more events planned in Barcelona, Shanghai and now San Francisco, there is a lot to look forward to for startups and tech enthusiasts.

The post 4YFN Enjoys Colossal Success with Record Attendance appeared first on ChipIn.

Companies – the very best included – are not entirely reliant on employee services and ideas anymore but on what its customers, critics, and third party experts have to suggest as well. It goes by a name pretty proverbial: Crowdsourcing. Unless you’re living under a rock, you at least have a clue of what this is. Perhaps you have heard about crowdfunding then? Well, that’s a form of crowdsourcing.

We are going to assume you are green as can be about this topic and begin with the basics. Then we will break down the subject further and touch into as many elements as possible.

Feel free to leave your comments at the bottom of the page in the comment section and share with us and our readers your opinions. Also, you can ask questions on whatever we may not have included or elucidated in the article, and we will be heartily willing to get back to you as soon as possible or annotate the piece if necessary.

For startups, and entrepreneurs in general, there is a lot to learn here.

So, what is Crowdsourcing?

The term crowdsourcing was born back in 2005 from a combination of the overtly related terms “crowd” and “outsourcing”. The guys behind it Mark Robinson and Jeff Howe believed the whole thing could be translated as “outsourcing the crowd”, a supposition they made clear in Howe’s article of June 2006, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” in Wired.

Echoing the founder himself, we can define crowdsourcing as:

“The act of an organisation transferring a function that was once tied down to the organisation’s employees to a larger, undefined pool of people in the form of an open call.”

That said, you will be forgiven for thinking that crowdsourcing was actually ‘founded’ in 2005. Well, only the term was. The practice has been in existence for centuries now, but implicitly, thanks to unreliable antiquated communication systems of back in the day.

Crowdsourcing Infographic

The power of faster and more cost-effective internet must have popularised the phenomenon to the level that a name was indubitably needed and, as a result, brought it into being. Daren C. Brabham became the first person to integrate the new term into a scholarly writing in 2008.

The Olden Crowdsourcing of Yore

One of the first Crowdsourcing Campaigns nearly 200 years ago

First, you should understand that there is a difference between how the old guys used to crowdsource ideas and resources and how we go about it in the modern world.

Right now, the internet is littered with crowdsourcing websites that have formed a major link between the organizations and individuals willing to lend a hand, unlike in the past where one had to print on papers (that were barely accessible to some) or go looking for potential benefactors in person, which plausibly must have been a little tiring and tedious.

Lack of sufficient information regarding various phenomena in the 18th and 19th centuries was a rife hitch in conducting researches and developing theories, and this inevitably prompted scholars to seek for assistance from members of the public.

For instance, in the making of the Oxford English Dictionary back in the 1800’s, understandably a few people could not come up with the whole vocabulary so the public as per request submitted their suggestions to the working group. The same thing applied when astronomer Denison Olmsted wanted to chronicle the meteor shower and its patterns in the early 19th century.

1. Modern Crowdsourcing

Just like everything else, crowdsourcing became popular and widespread with the start of the century thanks to the intensifying competition, advancement and affordability of information technology and later the invention of the smartphone.
Currently, crowdsourcing is carried out through the internet, not only massively reducing the cost and increasing the number of potential recipients of the information but also ensuring that only interested individuals are reached – as crowdsourcing sites could only be logged onto by users who are interested in crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing can be broken down into two broad categories:

• Implicit; and
• Explicit crowdsourcing.

Explicit crowdsourcing involves working together to work out a way to solve a problem while implicit crowdsourcing is aimed at bringing together individuals to come up with a solution for a side effect of an earlier action (that they may not have been part of).
The following forms taken by crowdsourcing in the corporate world can fall into the aforesaid categories.

2. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is the most popular form of crowdsourcing. It involves funding projects by obtaining monetary contributions from third parties, usually for a favor in return once the project is a success.

Most of the times rewards-based crowdfunding is conducted as product pre-purchasing. Drone, wearable and physical computer accessory startups with game-changing plans have particularly taken this form with a promise to make its funders the very first people to receive the product once it’s complete.

It can be fairly termed as a risky investment by the funders, as a refund is not warranted in case the whole project turns out to be a dud, but there hasn’t really been a history of failing campaigns to make it empirically cringe-worthy.
The problem, apparently, is that the very first products are usually super-buggy and that’s sadly what the people behind the project’s success, namely the backers get.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two most popular platforms for crowdfunding for business. Both were founded little under ten years ago with Indiegogo – created in 2007 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin and Eric Schell – commanding a larger website user base.

Coolest Cooler

Coolest Cooler launched a campaign of their own late in 2014 and showcased a prototype of the all-encompassing cooler (going by the brand name) they were developing, securing the backing of 36,000 people on Kickstarter. Yes, it may have turned out to be a sell in the end with directors citing miscalculated pricing in the campaign but it was proof that strategic campaigns can actually work without history and establishment backup.

Tilt and Quirky

Tilt and Quirky are the other known rewards-based crowdfunding platforms.
Crowdrise and the very famous GoFundMe make for the few platforms exclusively designed to facilitate funding towards charitable and personal causes. They are incentive-based and tied down to donations to, say, funeral and medical bills rather than profit-oriented campaigns.

Counterintuitively, Kickstarter is the most popular one in the West having played stage to some of the most successful across-the-board campaigns.

3. Crowdvoting

Crowdvoting has nothing to do with soliciting for monetary (or anything physical, for that matter) funding and everything to do with ideas, judgements, and opinions regarding a given topic.

Unlike crowdfunding, anyone – and not just businesses – is qualified for crowd voting but of course ‘backers’ are more interested in businesses as the end result could be something with a discernible impact.

Solicitors typically don’t use exclusive websites as is the case with crowdfunding, but instead do it on social media or on their own websites as an independent campaign targeting their ‘followers’ and loyal customers.

We have seen behemoths such as Coca-Cola and Domino’s Pizza follow this route while looking for bottle design and pizza ideas respectively, and it worked; Coca-Cola adopted the most upvoted design while Domino’s Pizza introduced a new pizza as suggested by a fan.

The method has grown famous among multinational organisations in various industries but this should never be confused with a lack of ideas on the designated personnel’s part or anything similar.

Mostly it’s a stunt to engage their customers and make them feel part of projects and thus remain loyal. In the long run, it counts as a popularity or sales gimmick. And, yes, it works, at least according to a research by Crowd-wisdom Intelligence Strategy who wanted to evaluate the impact of crowdvoting to the movie industry. They found out that the trailer of a movie and its feedback from viewers is an overture of the performance of the movie itself when it comes out.

4. Mobile Crowdsourcing

Mobile crowdsourcing involves the review of activities that take place on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices and using the data to make inferences on trends and preferences.

GPS technology together with other personal data on social media and other internet-based platforms provide the basis of mobile crowdsourcing. It is the same system Facebook and Google uses to know your location, gender, age and orientation to channel advertisements towards targeted persons.

It is one of the most successful forms of crowdsourcing yet only that many people are hypercritical of its algorithms which pry into individual private data.

5. Macrowork

This is where users with special skills are asked to contribute to large projects in phases where their skills can apply.

6. Microwork

Microwork is similar to macrowork only that these typically do not involve large projects, longer periods of time and specialized skills. This form of crowdsourcing is characterised by one-off jobs and are paid for by the crowdsourcers, with the rates varying with task difficulty, size etc. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a perfect example of a microwork crowdsourcing platform.

7. Inducement Prize Contests

Inducement prize contests are open platform competitions where crowdsourcers get to answer or solve a question or problem provided by the campaigner with a prize for the best answer (which will subsequently be adopted).

A good example of such a contest is the 2009 Netflix Prize which had a $1 million grand prize. The competition required participants to come up with a better and more accurate algorithm than Netflix’s own.

Winners of the contest, BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, submitted an algorithm blueprint that was allegedly 10% better than what Netflix was using in its then state. Unfortunately, the multinational never adopted the algorithm citing unnecessarily crazy costs that would come with the implementation.

Other forms of crowdsourcing include health care crowdsourcing – where governmental and non-governmental organizations solicit medical research for more reliable and efficient health care practices – and agricultural crowdsourcing, both of which fall under implicit crowdsourcing.

Why Crowdsourcing is Not a Waste of Time

The one thing that makes crowdsourcing one of the most powerful tools in the modern corporate world has everything to do with why people are setting up businesses in the first place: obtaining productive resources at a bargain.

Image: microsoft.com

Sometimes you may have enough employees to even think about crowdsourcing ideas, but we all know that time when a task catches you on the hop and you have to jump to Google to try and find a solution.

That’s when third party assistance comes in handy, and, well, we even have specific places on the internet these days where we can find the brains: sites such as freelance.com, studio.envato.com and Fiverr.com.

Whether whatever you’re paying for is for profit or just informational use, crowdsourcing is spilling cheap and effective labour at your disposal.

It has worked for a number of organisations (both profit and nonprofit, and even the government in a few occasions) to collect, parse and evaluate data in situations where depending on internal workforce would either be too costly or will just not work out due to scale or complexity of the assignment.

The US government through its relief agency the USAID launched in 2012 a crowdsourcing initiative to analyse and classify USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA) loan data and make it available to the public in a condensed and comprehensible form.
Assigning the task to the public not only eased the agency off the burden but also increased its transparency, as an offshoot.

The UK government, also, through the ministry of Digital Economy back in 2015 called on the public to give their opinions on the digital revolution in the country and how they would want the digitalisation of the education system, the NHS, transport, and communication carried out. The ministry provided an email address open for suggestions until January 2016.

Crowdsourcing For Business

As regards to crowdsourcing for business, the biggest beneficiaries have been startups but established companies and institutions haven’t let pass the opportunity either.

Apple in 2014 introduced a tool known as Apple Maps Connect through which business owners could directly update their location information on Apple Maps.

This was in a bid to reduce inaccuracy, wonky 3D images and misleading driving directions that were making the app virtually unusable. The tool would also allow the business to add information such as the official Twitter handle, Facebook page, Yelp page and a link to the official website in addition to a phone number, location, and address.

Google is using Crowdsourcing to improve their Google Translate tool | Screenshot

Another tech powerhouse that couldn’t possibly be as good without crowdsourcing is Google. While most of its functionalities are not directly the products of crowdsourcing, their improvements over time have a lot to do with the practice.
You may have noticed that below the search box on Google Translate, for instance, there is a link asking you to “improve the translation” if you think you can provide a better rendition of what has been offered.

By submitting a ‘better’ version, you are slowly improving the whole app and so is everyone else doing the same. In a month or even a week, the number of changes will theoretically sure have made a significant constructive effect on the app.
What apparently counts against the system is the logic that one wouldn’t be trying to look for a translation of something they can themselves translate. Basically, the number of individuals who use the “improve this translation button” to actually improve the translation is too small to make any substantial improvements in short periods.

Google Map Maker is another tool that needs your help to make Maps look as good as they do right now. Since the company cannot track each and every error spotted on Maps, from misplaced landmarks to missing roads and the presence of defunct malls, they have provided you with the tool which lets you make and submit your alterations.

So, if you think your neighbourhood is not correctly pictured on the map, all you need is to do is log in and update the system for the rest of the world.

Does Crowdsourcing for Business Affect Product Quality?

If you think about it, anything that affects input must in one way or another affect output. Crowdsourcing is no exception.

Through microwork, for instance, you’re not familiar with your employee and their grasp of the topic in question. It’s a gamble you are taking, and since you may not be sure yourself of what exactly the content should contain, you may end up unwittingly approving substandard work, posting it on your website and misleading a whole bunch of users.

Infographic by Column Five

If you don’t realise the mistake in time, you could end up doing yourself irreversible harm on a lot of fronts. For one, you may lose a few users and, of course, the money you used to pay for the content.
What’s more, crowdsourcers will most likely care more about the pay than the quality as the pay-per-item rule applies. An informed full-time employee would almost certainly deliver better quality.
Another crowdsourcing-related cause of presumed decline in product quality is the lack of the workplace environment for the crowdsourcer, which is typically awash with sufficient reference materials and of course the much-needed power of teamwork. As most projects are carried out by a single person, the prospect of implicit but consequential mistakes is relatively high.

Crowdfunding for Business

Whether you have a great on-paper business idea but no capital to execute it or vice versa (capital and no business idea) crowdsourcing platforms have been created to complement your half-done plans.
You can solicit lucrative ideas that chime in well with the amount of your capital through crowdvoting or launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund your business idea. The latter may be tougher thanks to the uncountable number of running campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but with a smarter proposal, it’s easy to cajole willing investors into giving your project a thought.

As a general suggestion, create a convincing project but also ensure you remain as realistic as possible.
There are multiple websites out there including littlemight.com that have provided a systematic guide on how to go about a successful Kickstarter campaign.
For Indiegogo, which boasts a more superior international platform than Kickstarter, visit indiegogo.com for a compendious guide as given by the crowdsourcing site itself.

Conclusion

Crowdsourcing – like we have seen – is not short of drawbacks, especially when product quality is the matter in question.
You are not in control of “employees” and that reduces competence which will impact on the returns.

For the case of crowdfunding, you have no power over how much funds your campaign is going to score, for one, and, of course, you have the burden of fulfilling your promises to backers.
If you fail, you fail the backers as well, and that’s something you probably can’t stomach.

That, however, is not to say that applying for crowdfunding is not worth it. With a well-laid business proposal and an in-depth scrutiny and understanding of the market you’re just about to venture in, there is enough reason to push on with the plan.

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If anything, you only need to consider the high failure rate (60%+ of all crowdfunding campaigns posted to date) to understand the significance of ensuring you give your project an ample head-start. If there is a time when the proverbial saying of, “make hay while the sun shines” can come in handy, it’s the few months or weeks before the big day.

That being said, there are several issues that can make your pre-crowdfunding efforts less effective. And there is nothing more disheartening than seeing your pledges totally flat-line while your campaign period is quickly ticking away. Read on and look out for solutions to some of the common mistakes that creators make while growing their audience pre-crowdfunding.

1. Insufficient Market Research

As much as you may have a flourishing business or several high flying backers on your speed-dial, you may want to resist the impulse to be overconfident in the research you have done so far. And this is why: One of the major perks of having a well-orchestrated pre-crowdfunding strategy is the fact that it calls for one to re-examine their current marketing strategy as well as other areas of your business. In addition to raising funds, you may just uncover several pitfalls in your business plan that are holding you back. Talk of killing two birds with a single stone.

2. Underestimating The Power of Visual and Audio Media

It’s a well-known fact that a majority of consumers respond better to powerful imagery than extensive customer testimonials or engaging written content. In fact, visual mediums, whether photos or videos, are the best ways of telling a story about your product. These are the major elements that help driving demand and interest towards your pre-crowdfunding campaign. That’s also why we love Tumblr more than Facebook!

3. Delaying the Onset of Important Pre-crowdfunding Campaign Stages Unnecessarily

A common mistake many creators make in the critical pre-crowdfunding period is leaving public relations till the last minute. Remember that even with extensive support from your family and friends, you will still require reaching more people who don’t share any prior relationship with you. One effective method of doing this is through garnering online coverage about your project. You will need to plan and do this work months or weeks in advance for more effectiveness.

4. De-emphasising your Family and Friends

Your family and friends will make up an important part of your pre-crowdfunding efforts. It is not surprising that most of us at times shy away from asking help from their close family members or friends. It is important that you maximise all the help you can get to ensure the critical early momentum. Besides, more often than not, your friends will be glad to support you in any way they can to assist you to achieve your dreams.

5. Ignoring Your Supporters

Among the worst mistakes that you can make before launching your crowdfunding campaign officially is ignoring your earliest fans and supporters (however insignificant they may seem). Many creators have since experienced how tough it can get when supporters feel unheard and turn into vocal enemies. Thus, it is better always to make certain that you keep your supporters happy before launching your crowdfunding campaign.

6. Lack of a Landing Page/Poorly Designed Landing Page

If you do not have a landing page for your cause or product, you are doing a lot of de-service to your pre-crowdfunding efforts. Build a website early in advance to showcase your project and have a section where your supporters can leave their contact details for future updates. After collecting email addresses on the landing page, start communication immediately and create buzz and excitement about your imminent launch. This way your supporters will be more compelled to support your campaign in the most important first week.

7. Not Appreciating the Immense Power of social media

Pre-crowdfunding would not be complete without sufficient input from social media. It is important to build a community around your project. Having an active online community in place through effective pre-crowdfunding makes raising funds a lot easier when you finally launch. Nevertheless, social media will require lots of work and must be done correctly.

8. Not Pre-fundraising

A key part of pre-crowdfunding is raising some money from your current community even before the launch of your crowdfunding campaign. Reach out actively to your established network and request for their support. This way, you can either get financial support or volunteer work instead of a direct no answer. You can hold a small special event and invite people who are passionate about the project and discuss the campaign. Getting your close network of supporters together is an excellent method of building enthusiasm for effective pre-crowdfunding.

. Conclusion

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Massolution Crowdfunding Industry Report

Other figures released from the Massolution Crowdfunding Industry Report pointed to very strong growth in recent years, and attributed it to the rise of Asia as a key crowdfunding region.

According to this report, the Asian crowdfunding sector raised $3.4 billion (320 percent growth in volume), which essentially put the region ahead of Europe’s $3.26 billion to become the second-largest region by crowdfunding volume. North America remained at the top in terms of crowdfunding volumes, growing by 145 percent to raise a total of $9.46 billion.

The Massolution report was based on data collected on 1250 active crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) around the globe, including high-quality data submitted to the Crowdfunding Industry Survey by 463 CFPs, before conducting further research and analysis to reach its results.

Previous Massolution reports indicated steady growth of the industry from 2011, with all platforms raising an estimated $2.7 billion and successfully raising funds for over one million campaigns in 2012. By 2013, the industry had grown by 81 percent to raise a collective sum of $5.1 billion, and it grew again by 320 percent in 2014 to raise over $16 billion.

If this trend continues, the World Bank predicts that the crowdfunding market could raise between $90 and $96 billion, which is approximately 1.8 times the size of the global venture capital industry today.

Crowdfunding Models

In 2014, lending-based crowdfunding models dominated the industry by raising $11.08 billion, which is more than two-thirds of the total. Regardless of these numbers, Massolution founder and CEO, Carl Esposti, argued that although lending-, reward-, and donation-based crowdfunding models have been at the forefront of this global financial revolution, it is equity-based campaigns that seem to be gaining the most interest in the US. Carl said this in anticipation of the passing of the Title III of the JOBS Act in October 2015, which should help loosen most of the crowdfunding restrictions on smaller ventures, enabling non-accredited investors to participate.

Still, equity-based crowdfunding platforms, like Fundrise, have capitalised on state laws to give non-accredited investors an opportunity to participate in online equity real estate investments – a means that was previously unavailable to them.

Crowd Valley’s report on the third-quarter of 2014 provided more recent data on trends in the crowdfunding markets. According to the data, the greatest demand (54 percent) is for equity funding; followed by lending (26 percent); and reward platforms that only accounted for 1 percent. Peer-to-peer investments, real estate, and private companies were the main assets being offered on the platform.

In this regard, the most popular funding categories based on 2014 data are:

Implications of the data

These figures and estimates go to show just how huge crowdfunding will potentially get. Still, there are other trends that were not captured in the two reports hinting at the future of the industry. For instance, the increasing number of established investors, like angel investors and venture capitalists in crowdfunding help make the practice credible and encourage other people to give it a try.

In fact, investors are not only taking part in the campaigns posted on these platforms, but also in the funding platforms themselves. Seemingly small platforms, like Indiegogo, Patreon, and Crowdtilt are doing amazingly well at getting investments for their own growth. Indiegogo, for instance, raised $40 million in a Series B at the beginning of the year. A couple of months earlier, Crowdtilt had raised $23 million in its own Series B, while arts-based Patreon managed to raise $2.1 million in summer 2014. Other platforms also raised additional capital.

There are a number of reasons why investors are willing to support these platforms:

• First, investors see the potential for crowdfunding platforms to reach emerging and untapped markets. There is money to be made; either through commissions from facilitating transactions amongst campaigner and their backers or investors, or by getting the first opportunity to invest in brilliant projects.
• Second, investors are exploring the potential in debt- and equity-based crowdfunding with regard to early-stage financing. The more the platforms successfully get projects funded, the more popular they become, leading to more growth.
• Third, many people see a correlation between the crowdfunding and the rise of social media – which made it possible for millions of people to connect to each other. Just like there are many big social networks besides Facebook, the crowdfunding industry cannot be dominated by one or two big players, as long as other platforms offer something unique.

The question of scale

Part of the appeal of crowdfunding is their unique P&Ls – profit and loss statements – since a platform’s sales and marketing spending can be essentially zero as the users/campaigners do the selling for them when looking for backers.

Still, the profitability of a platform depends on how well it scales. While some, like Indiegogo get over 200,000 successful campaigns resulting in good margins, not all 1,000+ platforms are doing this well.

So, many people believe that the crowdfunding industry is big, and will keep getting bigger, especially since it appeals to millennials and the social network-based economy. Crowdfunding is likely to become more mainstream in regards to how people approach raising funds and putting their money to work – whether to pre-purchase a unique product or to gain equity in a profitable venture.

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