My Experiences with Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding

         Since we have talked about the history, the details, the advantages and the disadvantages of crowdsourcing, I feel I should be able to talk about my very own experiences with the medium of crowdsourcing. As someone who spends quite a bit of time using apps and websites that have some of facet of crowdsourcing as well as contributing to those same apps and websites, I feel that it is important to relate my experiences with the concept.

       It is quite obvious that one of the main websites that benefits from crowdsourcing that I use the most is Wikipedia and other affiliated sites. Wikipedia is considered a crowdsourcing site because people are free to create and edit articles as a collective and those articles are used as a means for research. Wikipedia has been my #1 source for getting references for projects and the like since high school and thanks to the contributors, I am able to gain a whole lot more knowledge as well as useless trivia on a number of subjects. I’ve also contributed to Wikis as well, mostly to contribute my own knowledge as well as edit grammar and syntax mistakes by other users. The one’s I’ve contributed to most are Wikis such as TVTropes, a wiki devoted to cataloging tropes and clichés used in different mediums, and LostMediaWiki, a wiki devoted to tracking down and finding information on obscure and lost media.

        Another facet of crowdsourcing that I have found myself getting into is crowdfunding. So far I have crowdfunded four projects in my life. Three are video games and one is an animated short. Since I helped fund each of these projects, not only do I get access to these projects when they are completed as well benefits depending on how much money I gave to the project, but I also receive progress reports on the projects in questions. These usually come in the forms of e-mails telling me what has been done on the projects so far, are there any new ideas that can be added to due to extra funding and the estimated release may be. However, there was one time where I withdrew support for a Kickstarter thanks to project getting constantly delayed and I was not feeling I had gotten my money’s worth for a project that was constantly being delayed.

        In any case, I feel like sharing my experiences with how I have dealt with crowdsourcing has really opened my eyes to how much I do so in my everyday life. Prior to taking this course, I had thought crowdsourcing was just something I did every once in a while. Now that I know that crowdsourcing is a concept that is become more and more commonplace every day, I feel like it has bright future ahead of it.

By: Henry Hancock