Crowdsourcing has existed since the 18th century when large groups of people were hired to complete complex computational tasks. In the 19th century, the industrial revolution introduced ideas like division of labor and mass production that are similar to how some view crowdsourcing today. However, early crowdsourcing often exploited workers and did not address issues like worker satisfaction, retention, and quality of work. The document argues that modern crowdsourcing needs to move past mistakes of the past by focusing on finding and retaining skilled expert workers through improved processes rather than relying solely on low costs.

1. Crowdsourcing
Lessons from Henry Ford
Lessons from Henry Ford
Panos Ipeirotis
Associate Professor, Information Systems
Stern School of Business, New York University
Stern School of Business New York University
Blog: A Computer Scientist in a Business School
Blog: “A Computer Scientist in a Business School”
http://behind‐the‐enemy‐lines.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @ipeirotis

2. Crowdsourcing: First Steps
• Maskelyne, 1760:
– Used large number of human computers.
g p
– Created almanac with moon positions,
used for ship navigation
– Quality assurance by doing calculations
twice and compared by third verifier.
d db h d f
• De Prony, 1794:
y,
– Hires hairdressers (unemployed after
French revolution) who knew only addition
and subtraction) – Galton, biology, 1893
– Create logarithmic and trigonometric – Pearson, biology, 1899
tables. – …
– He managed the process by splitting the – Cowles, stock market, 1929
work into very detailed workflows.
work into very detailed workflows
– Hairdressers better than mathematicians in arithmetic! – Math Tables Project,
unskilled labor, 1938

3. Crowdsourcing: First Steps
• Maskelyne, 1760:
– Used large number of human computers.
g p
(Little has changed since then…)
(Little has changed since then )
– Created almanac with moon positions,
used for ship navigation
– Quality assurance by doing calculations
twice and compared by third verifier.
d db h d f
Patterns
De Prony, 1794:
y,
•
Division of labor
Division of labor
– Hires hairdressers (unemployed after
French revolution) who knew only addition
Mass production Galton, biology, 1893
and subtraction) –
– Create logarithmic and trigonometric – Pearson, biology, 1899
tables. – …
– He managed the process by splitting the Cowles, stock market, 1929
Remind you of something?
Remind you of something?
work into very detailed workflows.
work into very detailed workflows
– Hairdressers better than mathematicians in arithmetic!
–
– Math Tables Project,
unskilled labor, 1938

4. Meanwhile…
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution
• Textile manufacture
l f
• Mining
• Steam power
• Chemicals
• …

5. The Industrial Revolution: 19th Century
Productivity rises!
Productivity rises!
But who is the beneficiary?
B t h i th b fi i ?
(hint: child labor, tenements, cholera, chest
diseases, hunger, malnutrition…)

6. "The Communist Manifesto",
by Marx and Engels, 1848
by Marx and Engels 1848
A class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find
work only so long as their labor increases capital.
…
These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity,
Th l b h t ll th l i l dit
like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all
the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.
….
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labor, the
work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and,
consequently, all charm for the workman.
…
He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple,
most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of
him.
him

7. "The Communist Manifesto",
by Marx and Engels 1848
by Marx and Engels, 1848
A class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find
work only so long as their labor increases capital.
…
These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity,
Th l b h t ll th l i l dit
like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all
the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.
….
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labor, the
work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and,
consequently, all charm for the workman.
…
He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple,
most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of
him.
him
Remind you of something?

8. The assembly line and mass production
Mass production was popularized in
the 1910s and 1920s by Henry Ford,
who introduced electric motors to
the then‐well‐known technique of
chain or sequential production.
Standard of living started increasing after introduction of mass production

9. The Ford Innovation: The $5 workday
• Before Ford: many departments hired 300
men per year to fill 100 slots.
men per year to fill 100 slots
• Ford, in 1914, offered a $5/day wage ($110 in
, , / y g (
2008 dollars) doubling running wage
• Best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford:
Best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford:
– Brought expertise
– Raised productivity
– Lowered training costs
• Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best
Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best
workers

10. Fast forward to 2011…
Crowdsourcing: The assembly line for knowledge work
• Cost benefits: “It is cheap, and I help these poor guys”
[said the robber baron of the 19th century, together with the modern MTurk
requester]
• S
Speed and parallelism: “I
d d ll li “I got 1000 workers to work on
1000 k k
this task” [out of which, 1% workers did 99% of the work, the rest left,
g
generating turnover of 3000%]
g ]
• Breaking down to simple tasks: “Now we give tiny,
Breaking down to simple tasks: Now we give tiny,
meaningless tasks to people” [who get bored to death]

11. Crowdsourcing in 2011
Crowdsourcing in 2011
• We are still in the 19th century!
We are still in the 19
• We repeat all the mistakes!
ll h i k !
• We need a Henry Ford!

12. CrowdSearching
• It is not about the cost!
It is not about the cost!
• It is not about the crowd!
• It is not about simple tasks!
i b i l k!
• Crowdsourcing best for “parallel, scalable,
gq y
automatic interviews” and for finding quickly
good workers
Find the best trained
Fi d th b t t i d workers, fast,
k f t
pay them well, and keep them!