Crowd computing
Encyclopedia
Crowd computing is an overarching term which defines the myriad human interaction tools that enable idea sharing, non-hierarchical decision making and the full utilization of the world’s mind space. Examples of these tools (many falling under the Web2.0 umbrella) include collaboration packages, information sharing software, such as Microsoft’s SharePoint, wikis, blogs, alerting systems, social network
s, SMS, MMS, Twitter
, Flickr
, and even mashups. Business and society in general increasingly rely on the combined intelligence, knowledge, and life experiences of the “crowd” to improve processes, make decisions, identify solutions to complex problems and monitor changes in consumer taste.
An early example of crowd computing was the discovery of a gold deposit location at the Moribund Red Lake Mine in Northern Ontario
. Using all available data, the company, Goldcorp, Inc. had been unable to identify the location of new deposits on their land. In desperation, the CEO put all relevant geological data on the web and created a contest, open to anyone in the world. An obscure firm in Australia used their software and algorithms to crack the puzzle. As a result, the company found an additional 8 million ounces of gold at the mine. The only cost was the nominal prize money
awarded.
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
s, SMS, MMS, Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
, and even mashups. Business and society in general increasingly rely on the combined intelligence, knowledge, and life experiences of the “crowd” to improve processes, make decisions, identify solutions to complex problems and monitor changes in consumer taste.
An early example of crowd computing was the discovery of a gold deposit location at the Moribund Red Lake Mine in Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...
. Using all available data, the company, Goldcorp, Inc. had been unable to identify the location of new deposits on their land. In desperation, the CEO put all relevant geological data on the web and created a contest, open to anyone in the world. An obscure firm in Australia used their software and algorithms to crack the puzzle. As a result, the company found an additional 8 million ounces of gold at the mine. The only cost was the nominal prize money
Prize money
Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...
awarded.