Crowdsourcing Platforms: A Big Player for Future Jobs and Revenue Sources

What is Crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing has numerous definitions and varies from person to person, but here is a definition of crowdsourcing given by the Oxford English Dictionary. Crowdsourcing is "the practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people, typically via the Internet and often without offering compensation." Many of the examples of digital platforms that will later be reviewed by me slightly differ from the definition mentioned above; money is often given to individuals in a "crowd" as compensation for completing a given service.

Introduction: What Will be Discussed
Crowdsourcing is often seen by individuals as a window of opportunity, a chance to earn some money by completing tasks that others want done, or a place for others to do the work for you. Think of it as a job bank on steroids. There is never a shortage of people to perform jobs, and always more than enough jobs for people to perform. It all seems so good to be true, and we may actually enter a world where everyone is employed; that's where crowdsourcing platforms takes an ugly turn. The following passages will broadly discuss about the benefits and consequences of crowdsourcing, and afterwards speculate if whether the pros outweighs the cons.

Benefits of Crowdsourcing
Some of the most obvious benefits of crowdsourcing platforms are their ability to dissolve political, economic, and social boundaries for individuals across the globe. In regards to political boundaries, regulations and laws setup in countries keep individuals from working in various industries unless they have a licence. Issuing licences is an important measurement that governments and municipalities take to ensure the health and safety of everyone when services are performed. Take tradespeople and other specialists for instance; carpenters, electricians, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning), doctors, paramedics, pharmacists, and even taxi cab drivers. To be a qualified and practicing specialist in any of the industries listed above, a licence is usually needed. Sure, licenses can sometimes cost a little bit of money. I for instance paid over a hundred dollars to take my G1 test, which at the time seemed like a lot of money, especially when I considered what was involved in the process -- fill out forum, hand in forum, write test, wait for test to be marked in front of my eyes, and have a card be issued to me. It seemed like I was paying for a lot more than a silly plastic card. But really, a hundred dollars for a card that proves you are somewhat capable of driving on the road deserves my hard earned cash. After all, I wouldn't want teenagers driving on the roads, thinking as though there are no rules to obey. A drivers license is one simple example of a license that is relatively cheap and necessary to keep people safe. However, not all licenses come cheap and even though I feel they are necessary to keep people safe, not everyone can afford to have access to it. The cost to put an individual through school to become a doctor can go into the hundreds and thousands of dollars, which is an unfortunate reality. People can dream about entering the field of medicine to help people and change lives, but because of the combination of a political (need of a license) and an economic barrier (cost of tuition to obtain license); becoming a practicing doctor can seem out of reach. The same can be said about so many other industries like engineering and programming. What makes crowdsourcing platforms so great is that they do not require individuals to have a license and be a certified professional. For starters, let's take a look at Freelancer. Freelancer is a website with over 17 million registered freelance programmers that bid on jobs they want to work on, and whoever offers to complete the job for the cheapest price, it's theirs. In exchange for offering a virtual space that connects programmers with clients, Freelancer receives a small amount of money for each job posting. The programmers on this website do not need a diploma, degree, or a certificate of any kind. All they need are the skills required for getting the job done and so as long as they do that, they get paid.

Consequences of Crowdsourcing
Many of the same aspects that make crowdsourcing platforms so great are what also make it bad for industry jobs that are in competition with these platforms. Traditional modes of labor and production relied on physical communication; word of mouth, job offers in the newspaper and also flyers. Nowadays, people find skilled laborers not by the methods listed above, but through online platforms that bridges communication across space and time.These platforms, places such as Facebook, Youtube, TaskRabbit, Mechanical Turk, Kickstarter, and Uber are transforming the job market because it's so easy for individuals to participate in any industry. However, since anyone can access these platforms and offer their services, professional laborers who are steadily employed and enjoy a non-saturated job market are beginning to face a lot of competition from amateurs. They perform the same work that professionals would charge at a much lower cost, which inadvertently drives the cost down for quality goods and services. Obviously for consumers, lower cost of goods and services seems like such a great thing. However, take into perspective what the laborers have to contend with; competition from all walks of life around the world and a cost of living that isn't getting any cheaper.

In addition to an overly saturated job market, another disadvantage for individuals who participate in crowdsourcing platforms is the fact that they are not employees. They are part of a gig/1099 economy, an economy that is facilitated by "independent producers" who work as either contractors or consigners. The problem with a business model like this one is that the people who work for crowdsourcing platforms are not entitled to certain benefits that actual employees recieve. Benefits like health care, dental care, pension plans, severance packages, and a set annual income that is guaranteed. Gig type work does not offer this sort of social and economic security which can cause a lot of instability for individuals who are relying on this type of work as a main source of revenue.

Crowdsourcing Case Study: Can Professional Photographers Compete with Crowdsourcing Websites Like Shutterstock and iStockPhoto?
Photography is one industry that has been severely effected by millions of armature photographers who are able to purchase affordable cameras that produce high quality images. They then disseminate these high quality images onto websites like iStockPhoto and Shutterstock, receiving anywhere between "25 cents to $125" for each time their image is downloaded. For many photographers, this business model is a disturbing reality because now they are in competition with millions of other photographers in a race to create popular content that will sell in large quantities and maximize profit. According to the Economist, roughly 55, 000 photographers participate in the Shutterstock community. They add about 30,000 images everyday and so far, Shutterstock's inventory has grown to 30 million images that they hold the rights for distributing. It's hard for professional photographers to compete against a collection of 30 million images that individually sell on average for about $1. Mark Harmel is a freelance photographer who has realized first hand why these platforms are interfering with his business. For example, The National Health Museum which had little money asked Harmel if he could sell four pictures to the Museum at a reasonable cost. Harmel charged them his nonprofit rate: $100-150 per photograph, and explains that this was half the cost he would charge other corporations. To Harmel's dismay, he received an email from the project coordinator of the Museum, Menashe, declaring that she found photographs for a much cheaper price on a website called iStockphoto. Photographs for a cheaper price was an understatement; "Menashe licensed 56 pictures through iStockphoto for $1 each." When Harmel learned about this, he realized that it was impossible for him to compete with a business that is able to sell photographs of the same quality for literally pennies on the dollar. Part of the problem is that, unlike Harmel, individuals on iStockphoto do not have to clear $130,000 just to break even. An extra $130 per month, or even a year is just fine.

Conclusion
In summary, cloud computing and crowdsourcing platforms are providing new opportunities for laborers and clients who access the internet in search of providing, or obtaining a service. Laborers can find work with greater ease and are less constrained as they would be with traditional jobs which require a financial investment for obtaining a license. Crowdsourcing platforms eliminate these constraints, but it does come at a price. Arguably, crowdsourcing platforms haven’t created any new jobs per-se. All they have done is re-allocated where the jobs are and how they are performed. In a gig type work economy, laborers are transient and dispensable. Many other workers are available to take their place and even perform the job at a cheaper price, which leaves me with one conclusion. Crowdsourcing platforms are driving the price of certain services even cheaper than they were before which is putting financial pressure on laborers, and the only real winner here are the consumers.