Wikipedia Does crowdsourcing replace a dictionary’s need for experts?

1. WikipediaDoes crowdsourcing replace a dictionary’s need for experts? RaffieAvakian WMBA 509 Spring Semester 2013, Session 2

2. Presentation Thesis • Crowdsourcing may be a good way to do outsourcing, but it is a form of corruption that can send businesses to the ground.

3. Terminology • 1.) Outsourcing – to procure goods or services under contract with an outside supplier. • 2.) Crowdsourcing – outsourcing without consulting and sourcing from the experts. • 3.) Types of Crowdsourcing: a.) Crowd Creation – Creation “activities” – asking individuals to film TV commercials, perform language translations, or solve challenging scientific problems. b.) Crowd Voting – leverages the community’s judgment to organize, filter, and stack-rank content: newspapers, music, and articles. c.) Crowd Wisdom – attempts to harness many people’s knowledge in solving problems or predict future outcomes or help direct corporate strategy. d.) Crowd Funding - offers financing to individuals or groups that might be denied credit or opportunity. • 4.) Dictionary- a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online lexical resource (such as Dictionary.com ) containing a selection of the words of a language, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etc. • 5.) Wikipedia – a free Internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. The largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet. 1.) Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outsource 2.) Dr. Nathan Garrett, School of Business, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA. 3.) Retrieved from http://outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/four- types-of-crowdsourcing/ 4.) Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dictionary 5.) Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

4. Is Crowdsourcing good or bad? Good (or “Pro”) side: 1.) Big benefit: the ability to receive better quality results, since several people offer their best ideas, skills, & support. 2.) Crowdsourcing allows one to select the best result from a sea of ‘best entries,’ as opposed to receiving the best entry from a single provider. 3.) Results can be delivered much quicker than traditional methods, since crowdsourcing is a form of freelancing. You can get a finished video within a month or a finished design or idea within a week. Bad (or “Con”) side: 1.) Clear instructions are essential in crowdsourcing. You could potentially be searching through thousands of possible ideas, which can be painstaking, or even complicated, if the instructions are not clearly understood. 2.) Some forms of crowdsourcing do involve spec work, which some people are against. Quality can be difficult to judge if proper expectations are not clearly stated. Raffie’s Opinion: Outsourcing information of any kind without consulting the experts (or without seeking actual sources) is a very bad idea and is declared a “corruption” that could have severe legal consequences in the future. Retrieved from http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing-basics/what-is-crowdsourcing

5. Theories that make Crowdsourcing "Bad" 1.) It takes advantage of people, who come up with creative ideas to do specification (or do more detailing) work on a specific work or project. This is a waste of time, labor, and even, money. 2.) People get more information from multiple sources rather than focus primarily one source, where that one source can have a big bundle of information right on the spot. (Example: if a student was to search for a particular country and city on a map, rather than doing the old-fashioned (traditional) way of opening a “world-book encyclopedia” or an “atlas”, a much, quicker way is to search on the Internet (either in wikipedia, images.google.com, or any search engine). 3.) Instead of the original source or founder getting credit for the hard work on a source, the company that puts all the information on that source (or other sources) together gets the credit. That is totally unfair! Retrieved from http://jugglinginthedark.blogspot.com/2013/01/crowdsourcing-is-bad-for-many-reasons.html

6. Facts about "Bad Crowdsourcing" 1.) Crowdsourcing seeks to take the approach of writing a biography without knowing the story. 2.) It relies on a brief, passing summary of a company at best. Nothing more. 3.) More importantly, and at its worst, crowdsourcing eliminates the story and settles on an image that doesn’t contain the least bit of substance. 4.) Crowdsourcing completely disregards the brand. 5.) One example of “Bad Crowdsourcing”: Wikipedia (sorry, no offense - to anyone)!!! Retrieved from http://taprootcreative.com/2009/10/why-crowdsourcing-is-bad/

7. Wikipedia and Crowdsourcing 1.) Wikipedia is classified as a form of “crowdsourcing”. It is a “free” website where people all over the world can write information about anything in the world (past or present time). 2.) Anyone can access it, but the problem is that the information is not reviewed by experts, and some information could be controversial and lead to war and physical action by groups (in terms of political, social, or religious). 1.) Retrieved from http://readatech.com/2011/01/16/10-years-of-wikipedia-can-we-get-10-more-please-1550/ 2.) Retrieved from http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/what-is-crowdsourcing/ 3.) Retrieved from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_Wikipedia_a_bad_source

8. Wikipedia and Crowdsourcing 3.) Even schools and universities have brought issues that Wikipedia is considered a “not authoritative” source in getting information, and students are taking advantage of the website to “get away with it” with succeeding, without putting enough effort and hard work. 4.) Teachers, Instructors, (even Professors) strongly encourage and recommend researching information to an original source when writing a paper, or completing an exam. It's usually not advisable, particularly at the university level, to cite an encyclopedia. (again, no offense here either!!!) Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki

9. Conclusion 1.) Crowdsourcing can have a good value in bringing success, but applying it can bring bad results for the actual source or business (ex: a company’s reputation). a.) In other words, crowdsourcing can: i.) damage the company’s value of service to the community; ii.) the costs of having a company or business to fix its reputation could send the business down to the ground. 2.) Wikipedia is considered a “bad” form of crowdsourcing since information that are written on the site: a.) are just general information (like a biography) and not real stories taken from actual sources; b.) people take advantage by accepting information that may or may not be entirely true. 3.) Recommendation: research information the old-fashioned way – through books, journals, magazines, or consult with experts – do not rely on computer sources that give “quick answers” right away.