Crowdsourcing software development

Abstract: The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the human race has always outstripped our capacity to harness it Crowdsourcing corrects thatbut in doing so, it also unleashes the forces of creative destruction From CrowdsourcingFirst identified by journalist Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired article, crowdsourcing describes the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of the specialized few Howe reveals that the crowd is more than wiseits talented, creative, and stunningly productive Crowdsourcing activates the transformative power of todays technology, liberating the latent potential within us all Its a perfect meritocracy, where age, gender, race, education, and job history no longer matter; the quality of work is all that counts; and every field is open to people of every imaginable background If you can perform the service, design the product, or solve the problem, youve got the jobBut crowdsourcing has also triggered a dramatic shift in the way work is organized, talent is employed, research is conducted, and products are made and marketed As the crowd comes to supplant traditional forms of labor, pain and disruption are inevitable Jeff Howe delves into both the positive and negative consequences of this intriguing phenomenon Through extensive reporting from the front lines of this revolution, he employs a brilliant array of stories to look at the economic, cultural, business, and political implications of crowdsourcing How were a bunch of part-time dabblers in finance able to help an investment company consistently beat the market? Why does Procter & Gamble repeatedly call on enthusiastic amateurs to solve scientific and technical challenges? How can companies as diverse as iStockphoto and Threadless employ just a handful of people, yet generate millions of dollars in revenue every year? The answers lie within these pages The blueprint for crowdsourcing originated from a handful of computer programmers who showed that a community of like-minded peers could create better products than a corporate behemoth like Microsoft Jeff Howe tracks the amazing migration of this new model of production, showing the potential of the Internet to create human networks that can divvy up and make quick work of otherwise overwhelming tasks One of the most intriguing ideas of Crowdsourcing is that the knowledge to solve intractable problemsa cure for cancer, for instancemay already exist within the warp and weave of this infinite and, as yet, largely untapped resource But first, Howe proposes, we need to banish preconceived notions of how such problems are solved The very concept of crowdsourcing stands at odds with centuries of practice Yet, for the digital natives soon to enter the workforce, the technologies and principles behind crowdsourcing are perfectly intuitive This generation collaborates, shares, remixes, and creates with a fluency and ease the rest of us can hardly understand Crowdsourcing, just now starting to emerge, will in a short time simply be the way things are done

Abstract: This document describes technical mechanisms employed in network censorship that regimes around the world use for blocking or impairing Internet traffic. It aims to make designers, implementers, and users of Internet protocols aware of the properties exploited and mechanisms used for censoring end-user access to information. This document makes no suggestions on individual protocol considerations, and is purely informational, intended as a reference.

Abstract: Open source software products represent the leading edge of innovation development and diffusion systems conducted for and by users themselves - no manufacturer required. Research into this phenomenon has so far focused on how the major tasks of software development are organized and motivated. But a complete user system requires the execution of "mundane but necessary" tasks as well. In this paper, we explore how the mundane but necessary task of field support for open source Apache server software is organized, and how and why users are motivated to participate in providing it. We find that the present system works well and that information providers are largely rewarded by benefits directly received from a related task. We also find, however, that the present help system is by and for only a few - and that changes would be needed if and as volume increases. General lessons for user-based innovation systems includes the clear willingness of users to openly reveal their proprietary information. This bodes well for the efficiency of user-only innovation systems. Open revealing is rational behavior if the information has low competitive value and/or if information providers think that other users know the same thing they do, and would reveal the information if they did not.

Abstract: Ideas competitions appear to be a promising tool for crowdsourcing and open innovation processes, especially for business-to-business software companies Active participation of potential lead users is the key to success Yet a look at existing ideas competitions in the software field leads to the conclusion that many information technology (IT)-based ideas competitions fail to meet requirements upon which active participation is established The paper describes how activation-enabling functionalities can be systematically designed and implemented in an IT-based ideas competition for enterprise resource planning software We proceeded to evaluate the outcomes of these design measures and found that participation can be supported using a two-step model The components of the model support incentives and motives of users Incentives and motives of the users then support the process of activation and consequently participation throughout the ideas competition This contributes to the successful implementation and maintenance of the ideas competition, thereby providing support for the development of promising innovative ideas The paper concludes with a discussion of further activation-supporting components yet to be implemented and points to rich possibilities for future research in these areas