Does Crowdsourcing Threaten Jobs?

Posted on June 12, 2006

Wired seems to have coined a new word "crowdsourcing" in a recent article. The term refers to the use of user submitted content or logged-in users to complete a task. It may be a threat to some types of careers.

All these companies grew up in the Internet age and were designed to take advantage of the networked world. But now the productive potential of millions of plugged-in enthusiasts is attracting the attention of old-line businesses, too. For the last decade or so, companies have been looking overseas, to India or China, for cheap labor. But now it doesn't matter where the laborers are -- they might be down the block, they might be in Indonesia -- as long as they are connected to the network.
Technological advances in everything from product design software to digital video cameras are breaking down the cost barriers that once separated amateurs from professionals. Hobbyists, part-timers, and dabblers suddenly have a market for their efforts, as smart companies in industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the crowd. The labor isn't always free, but it costs a lot less than paying traditional employees. It's not outsourcing; it's crowdsourcing.

The article mentions a website called iStockPhoto, an online collection of member-generated royalty-free images, that already threatens some professional stock photographers. The Wired article also mentions Amazon.com's recently launched Mechanical Turk which allows companies to hire individuals to perform very small mundane tasks in exchange for micropayments. What does this mean to workers? It is unclear whether a payment system like Amazon's Turk could work for complex tasks. So far, crowdsourcing isn't much of a threat unless the work you do is something that people are eager to do on the Internet for little pay. But that could change with more sophisticated software tools and micropayment reward systems.