Crowdsourcing

Recent history shows mankind has made significant strides in technology and understanding. These discoveries can be attributed, at least in part, to the competitive nature of many leading minds and the awe inspiring advances in communications.

The competitive nature and desire for personal gain alone maintains a slow yet steady march inside the individual genius of each contributor. When the discoveries are shared, individual genius becomes collective genius. Unfortunately, collective genius can only be collective when it is shared in such detail that the discovery can be assumed by others as if it were their own. The competitive nature however, often restricts the collaboration to personally beneficial conditions.

While many of these discoveries have greatly improved our way of life, we can do better. We can do so much better, together.

crowd·source·ing | \ ˈkrau̇d-ˌsȯr-siŋ \
the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.
“Crowdsourcing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster. Accessed 15 Mar. 2022.

While the term “crowdsourcing” only became popular about 15 years ago (Jeff Howe in Wired), these methods for solving problems have been employed for millennia.

Traditional Examples

Voting – Elections have been used since the ancient Greek and Roman empires. While the efficacy of any vote may be questioned, the ultimate intent is to select the “best” choice from a list of options. This method is used from political office all the way down to the “best” type of pizza. The objectivity of the results can usually be filed into a particular use case. For example, results from voting on the “best” pizza will not give you an objective answer to the question (because the question is subjective) but it can give you an objective answer to a new business owner on which pizzas they may want to include on their menus.

Longitude Prize – On July 8th, 1714, pressured by the extreme cost of lives and commodities from ships lost at sea, the British Parliament offered £20,000 (~ £1.5m today) to anyone who could determine longitude accurately to within a half of a degree from anywhere in the world. This method of crowdsourcing offered an enticing remuneration for any individual or group who could solve this problem.

Toyota – In 1936 Toyota sponsored a competition for the Toyota (formerly Toyoda) logo design. This event proved to be an efficient method for generating a company logo (~27,000 entries) and it also served as a significant advertising campaign.

Many other examples of this type of crowdsourcing exist though they tend to have a unique limitation. They are limited to the individual. The ideas and efforts do not compound.

Compounding Crowdsourcing

Compounding crowdsourcing distinguishes itself from traditional crowdsourcing when individual contributions are shared collaboratively. Building ideas and understanding in such a way creates a solid foundation for future ideas and implementations to be built. Compounding efforts create a collective genius where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Human Genome Project – The HGP was a highly collaborative, international effort to map the human genome (or full genetic sequence). This effort is distinctive from the previous examples because it was a shared, compounding effort. Research conducted was shared among all participating organizations across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Python – Conceived in the 1980’s and first implemented in 1989, Python is an open-source, highly collaborative programming language. Much of Python’s growth, sophistication, and stability can be directly attributed to the compounding open-source community input and monitoring.

Wikipedia – Much like Python, Wikipedia has a large community. While individuals can be flawed and provide inaccuracies, the collective compounding effort of an enormous user base helps ensure that the information provided on wiki sites is correct and current.

Crowdsourcing World Problems

Compounding crowdsourcing may be the vehicle that drives our society to true prosperity. Many of the issues facing our civilization cannot be solved individually. Collective efforts must be integrated beyond the desire for personal gain to surmount many of the toughest challenges. Unfortunately, many of the toughest challenges do not hold significant incentive for the individual to warrant its pursuit and many solutions that are sought, must possess a level of monetary gain to fund the pursuit.

A few examples of some of the more glaring issues are listed below. While many of these issues are being addressed (or not an issue) in urban, affluent areas, the majority of the world needs different, tailored solutions.

Low-Cost Housing
Waste Management and Recycling
Heat Generation and Retention
Off-Grid Power Generation and Short-Term Storage
Low-Impact Land Use Techniques
High-Yield, Low-Cost, Minimal-Footprint Food Production
Transportation and Infrastructure
Peace
Integrated and Collaborative Climate Research

When we stop looking at the world and its complex issues through the lens of how it affects us individually or our “community”, we can begin to see a larger picture. Stare at that picture long enough and we may discover that these issues do affect us and our “communities” but not in the ways we may have originally considered.

The planet is our community.

For example, climate change is a global issue that has received attention for many years though publicly it seems to be discussed and approached from within a vacuum. Western civilizations political and media outlets appear to have selectively focused on the burning of fossil fuels as the key underlying condition driving the change.

The world is a collective ecosystem that has developed over billions of years. Earth can be viewed as a living organism with balances being sought and an immune system to compensate. When one system is out of balance, other systems attempt to compensate in order to restore balance. Ocean algae, terrestrial flora, evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, particulates in the air and water, albedo (amount of solar radiation reflected from the earth), soil moisture retention versus runoff, and emissions (atmospheric and hydrological) all have significant effects on the health of the ecosystem. When the ecosystem is unhealthy, it cannot function properly in its pursuit to restore balance, particularly when multiple systems are out of balance at the same time.

Unfortunately, in many regards, it often comes down to differences in developed countries versus under-developed countries (I use these terms generally). Developed countries show a desire to counteract the environmental detriment that was caused during their rapid development while at the same time, stifling the development opportunities of developing nations who seek cheap, available energy.

Fossil fuels (primarily coal & petroleum products) are abundantly available in many developing nations and are relatively simple to extract energy from. Without sufficient alternatives, these nations will walk a similar road to prosperity as the developed nations.

Waste generated from rapid development or continued development, can be curtailed with the right answers to seemingly difficult questions. Since the industrial revolution, we have focused on large marketable community sized solutions that generate revenue either through paid services or taxation. Compounding, collective crowdsourcing can find the solutions that lie outside of these constraints and are the best fit for our future.

Proposal

To tackle the most pressing issues we need an environment for collaboration, incentive, and a group of knowledgeable individuals with the opportunity and desire to research and iterate on the answers. Universities and the research community are poised and prepared for these challenges.

For any of the issues mentioned previously, many universities and research groups are already engaged. We need only to create an environment for collaboration and a little additional incentive. An annual (or semi-annual) conference dedicated to a particular issue should host a competition encouraging the open sharing of ideas and solutions. Full and complete solutions to either the entire issue or a derivative component are shared with the community and select solutions are incentivized for their merit.

University professors and industry professionals can be employed to judge and guide the competitions. The overall community could also participate in determining acceptable solutions and proposals. Additionally, these conferences could be presented via a remote connection allowing all those who desire to participate the opportunity to do so.

Subsequent conferences and submitted solutions are encouraged and rewarded for compounding ideas and approaches until sufficient solutions are received to alter the focus and purpose of the conferences.

Potential Research Focus Areas

Low-Cost Housing

Safe, affordable, and durable options for housing are needed the world over. Solutions are required that are resource sensitive, reproduceable, and require minimal specialized skills or tools to accomplish.

Waste Management and Recycling

All waste, one way or the other should be available for reuse / recycling though many producers do not give the appropriate forethought and many consumers do not give the appropriate follow through. Sufficient support and infrastructure are not universally available.

Heat Generation and Retention

Low-cost, sustainable heat generation is essential for human development, particularly in communities closer to the poles.

Off-Grid Power Generation and Short-Term Storage

Significant inefficiencies exist in grid creation, maintenance, and distribution that cost significant resources. Off-grid solutions are required, particularly in remote areas.

Low-Impact Land Use Techniques

Current and antiquated land use techniques often limit opportunity and can have significant environmental impacts.

High-Yield, Low-Cost, Minimal-Footprint Food Production

Bringing food generation closer to the family and the table, will reduce the overall cost, environmental impact, and waste (spoilage). Sufficient solutions should include space and resource sensitive options for locally sourced food production.

Conclusion

Together we can solve some of the worlds most pressing issues and improve the quality of life for everyone.