The Four Forms of Crowdsourcing

Dr. Zoe Szajnfarber, Associate Professor at The George Washington University, identifies four forms of crowdsourcing that can provide solutions to innovation challenges: garden variety crowdsourcing, distant expert sourcing, expert targeting, and force multiplying. She emphasizes that, by breaking down complex challenges into parts, almost any challenge can be answered by the crowd. When planning for an innovation challenge, leaders must consider the inherent problem and the focus of the solution space's scope versus its novelty and implementability. Also, failure should be rebranded as a valuable lesson, even if the solution wasn't chosen or implemented. Dr. Szajnfarber's focus on safety and the importance of preserving life has driven a lot of creative enterprise.