Incorporating Global Medical Knowledge to Solve Healthcare Problems: A Framework for a Crowdsourcing System

2. Crowdsourcing Typology

There are many types of crowdsourcing systems with different objectives. Crowd polling systems are often used as a method for getting information from crowds about their opinions, while crowd-solving systems involve the incorporation of numerous individuals in teams undertaking creative work (Peisl, Selen, Raeside, & Alber, 2014). Crowd processing systems rely on large number of contributions. Contributors collectively process tasks in sizable numbers to minimize the use of traditional organizational resources (Budescu & Chen, 2015). Crowdfunding is a special type of crowdsourced product that is used as a method for generating funds from many individuals to sponsor businesses, creative projects, charities, and more.

Crowd-solving involves gathering ideas from individuals and the aggregation of ‘intangible’ goods in the form of the crowds’ knowledge or information (Kamajian, 2015; Prpić, Taeihagh, & Melton, 2015). On the other hand, crowdsourcing strategies like crowdfunding and crowdpolling involve asking individuals to make ‘tangible’ contributions in the form of currency (crowdfunding) or votes (crowdpolling).