Defining Electronic Health Technologies and Their Benefits for Global Health Program Managers: Crowdsourcing

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2015

Abstract:

Crowdsourcing conflates the words “outsourcing” and “crowd.” It appears to have been introduced in print by Wired magazine in 2006 to describe an approach to accomplishing a task by soliciting input from the public, or a specific subset of the public. Since then, both the word and the concept have been applied in many contexts.

Broad global access to the Internet and mobile phone networks has expanded the potential size of “the crowd” far beyond what was possible with traditional communication tools a decade ago. Today, one can engage a huge, often geographically disperse group of individuals through social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), text message and mobile phone applications, websites and games on the Internet, or through other Internet- and cloud-based platforms. These people can help accomplish discrete tasks for a small fee or free of charge.

Crowdsourcing has been used increasingly in global health. All four types of crowdsourcing have been applied, but crowdsourcing for knowledge discovery appears to be most promising as a tool to facilitate the management of health programs globally.