Crowdsourcing AOL case
MIS
Management Information System
Crowdsourcing at AOL Case Analysis
1. A brief analysis of the case study
AOL engaged in what is called “micro-tasking”, and is believed to revolutionize the virtual workforce. Micro-tasking is what Daniel Maloney, an AOL executive, applied when he was faced with inventorying a vast video library. He broke the large job into small pieces and utilized a crowdsourcing IT platform, Mechanical Turk, in order to describe each task that he required to be done. Each worker was asked to find web pages containing a video and identify the video’s source and location. The project started within a week and completed in a couple of months. The total labor cost was as low as it would‘ve been to hire two man-month temporary workers.
2. Discussion questions
2-1. Is crowdsourcing as used by AOL a form of outsourcing? Why of why not?
Yes, I consider that crowdsourcing is one of the forms of outsourcing. Definition of outsourcing means that the purchase of a good or service that was previously provided internally or that could be provided internally, but is now provided by outside vendors. Crowdsourcing can be implied almost the same one. Furthermore, strictly speaking, the very definition of crowdsourcing implies that it is a form of outsourcing. Nevertheless, the differences between them exist some points namely, costs, risks, level of control, implications, nature of the party that handles the outsourced function, and so on.
2-2. What steps do you think Maloney might have taken to ensure that the crowdsourcing would be a success for the inventory project?
I consider the following points are critical paths.1) To confirm the explicit project 2) The large jobs are broke into a micro-tasks and Maloney creates a policy to follow for people as they work on the tasks. 3) He judged Mechanical Turk provided AOL with high quality, low cost, global and on-demand workers. Thus he describes these tasks that he needs to be done on Mechanical Turk.
Management Information System
Crowdsourcing at AOL Case Analysis
1. A brief analysis of the case study
AOL engaged in what is called “micro-tasking”, and is believed to revolutionize the virtual workforce. Micro-tasking is what Daniel Maloney, an AOL executive, applied when he was faced with inventorying a vast video library. He broke the large job into small pieces and utilized a crowdsourcing IT platform, Mechanical Turk, in order to describe each task that he required to be done. Each worker was asked to find web pages containing a video and identify the video’s source and location. The project started within a week and completed in a couple of months. The total labor cost was as low as it would‘ve been to hire two man-month temporary workers.
2. Discussion questions
2-1. Is crowdsourcing as used by AOL a form of outsourcing? Why of why not?
Yes, I consider that crowdsourcing is one of the forms of outsourcing. Definition of outsourcing means that the purchase of a good or service that was previously provided internally or that could be provided internally, but is now provided by outside vendors. Crowdsourcing can be implied almost the same one. Furthermore, strictly speaking, the very definition of crowdsourcing implies that it is a form of outsourcing. Nevertheless, the differences between them exist some points namely, costs, risks, level of control, implications, nature of the party that handles the outsourced function, and so on.
2-2. What steps do you think Maloney might have taken to ensure that the crowdsourcing would be a success for the inventory project?
I consider the following points are critical paths.1) To confirm the explicit project 2) The large jobs are broke into a micro-tasks and Maloney creates a policy to follow for people as they work on the tasks. 3) He judged Mechanical Turk provided AOL with high quality, low cost, global and on-demand workers. Thus he describes these tasks that he needs to be done on Mechanical Turk.