Aggregate Crowdsourcing Platforms

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products for aggregating crowdsourcing platforms are disclosed. In an aspect of the present disclosure, a crowdsourcer (i.e., a sponsor for a particular contest, competition, or task) can provide the same contest, competition, or task across several communities that may have different user interfaces and / or different user devices or processes. The crowdsourcer can reward the community or community member that provides the winning solution or valuable answer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 513,438, titled “Aggregate Crowd Sourcing Platforms,” filed on Jul. 29, 2011 (Atty. Docket No. 2194.01), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Disclosure[0003]The present disclosure generally relates to crowdsourcing systems, and more particularly to systems, methods and computer program products for aggregating crowdsourcing platforms.[0004]2. Related Art[0005]Systems that use crowdsourcing typically use open calls in order to request solutions (or answers) to tasks (i.e., contests). The crowdsourcer will send the open call that will be directed to one or more communities (i.e., “crowds”). The open calls are typically made through, for example, web-based technologies such as, for example, web services. The crowdsourcing systems typically provide, in the open calls, the information describing the tasks and ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present patent discloses a system, method, and computer program for aggregating multiple crowdsourcing platforms. This helps to create a single aggregated virtual community that can receive input from different groups of people and use winning solutions or answers in a business process. The technical effects of this system include the ability to create one contest, competition, or task across multiple communities with different user interfaces and reward the community that provides the winning solution or answer. Additionally, the system can receive inputs from other aggregated communities and create a crowdsourced business process for solutions or answers.

Problems solved by technology

It is difficult for a crowdsourcer to determine which community platform has the appropriate mix of capabilities that can successfully deliver a solution that the crowdsourcer is seeking.

As new crowdsourcing platforms emerge, two particular challenges also emerge.

First, it is difficult for a crowdsourcer to determine which communities are to be chosen for a class of specialization such as, for example, ideation, software development, product development, or marketing.

This difficulty for the crowdsourcer is also increased because there may be many communities that serve the same function.

Further, as an entity (e.g., a company) seeks to leverage communities that serve the same tasks (functions), it may be difficult for the entity to identify the particular communities that are appropriate or optimal for a given crowdsourced task.

In other words, current technology does not provide any method that effectively uses the community platforms that enable a business process to be applied to the solutions from the communities.

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