Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 3

Crowdsourcing 3

Target Markets serviced by crowdsourcing platforms 4

Business Model Canvas on Odesk and its strengths 5

Leverages of Odesk on technology to create value 6

Opportunities posed by Odesk 7

Threats posed by Odesk 7

Conclusion 7

References 8

Executive Summary

This report will highlight the services provided and market targeted by the specified four crowdsourcing platforms that are Mechanical Turk, Freelancer, Odesk and kickstarter. Basically this report is all about the services, opportunities and threats of using a particular crowdsourcing platform which is selected from these given platforms. This report will discuss the influence of Odesk crowdsourcing platform on the value cost both for seekers and solvers and also defines the strengths of this platform by using a business model. Before discussing all details about Odesk crowdsorcing platform, this report will consider the all four platforms in term of their value cost to both seekers and solvers.

Introduction

This report will include the definition of croudsourcing and we will also discuss the four crowdsourcing platforms in this report and the value proposition, they are providing to the seekers and solvers. First of all we will elaborate the meaning of crowdsourcing and the services of four crowdsourcing platforms that are Mechanical Turk,Freelancer, Odesk and Kickstarter. Basically, crowdsourcing is just the way of getting work or funding online from people who are not the employees of a particular organization. (Harth, A., & Koch, N., 2012).This report will consider all opportunities and threats that an organization can face by selecting one specific crowdsourcing platform and also its influence on the technology to create value for both seeker and solvers. But before discussing about all above mentioned points, it is necessary to know the meaning of crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is made up of two words that are “crowd” and “outsourcing”. It means that work comes from an undefined crowd which is done by undefined public. Mainly, it is process of acquiring needed services or content from a number of persons who are self employed or part time workers. A seeker who wants a person or number of persons for  getting a particular work done ,can broadcast his/her problem on different crowdsourcing platforms and persons who are interested in terms of work and money he/she is paying for getting work done can refer themselves for the work. (Doan, A., Ramakrishnan, R., & Halevy, A., 2011).

Target Markets serviced by crowdsourcing platforms

There are four crowdsourcing platforms which we are describing in our report and their services to target particular markets along with their value proposition to the both seekers and solvers. (Kim, Y., Collins-Thompson, K., & Teevan, J)

Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk is the market place which believes that in spite of increase in the computing technology; still some tasks are there which a human being can do much easier and faster than the computers like writing a product description, finding an object from a picture, copying audio recording and researching data details etc. All these tasks required human intelligence and this platform provides a number of human beings at low cost to the various companies to achieve their goals on time. It provides services like data gathering, photo processing, and data verification and video processing etc. In terms of value proposition, it provides monetary rewards for buying something on amazon and also provides opportunity to become MTurk Master which means a person can make more money through this platform.

Freelancer

It is the largest crowdsourcing market place for small business which provides various persons as freelancer to do seeker’s work at low cost. It provides the jobs to the PHP developers, Web designer or content writer who ever wants to work as freelancer within minutes. It also supports so many more services and it is easiest way for hiring a freelancer and finding a job as freelancer. Various freelancers and seekers have various issues regarding the value proposition due to its charges for upgrading bid rate etc.

Odesk

It is another globally used crowdsourcing market which provides its client the facility to interview, test and hire a freelancer for job. Freelancers may sign up on Odesk and create their account using which they can easily bid for any job. (ODesk, 2014). It supports various areas like programming, web development, graphics design and content writing etc. It is very clear about its value propositions to both seekers and solvers as it increases the transparency between the client and freelancer and team software is responsible for safe and accurate billing for all work performed.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a crowd funding program which allows the creative people from all over the world to show their creativity to the world through it and also earn some money from that creativity. It is basically a mean of connecting an artist to the audience. It supports the projects on books, comics, films and music producer in areas of technology, clothing and others. In terms of value proposition, it is beneficial to both seeker and solver as in case of solvers, it provides a way to reach massive audience and easy funding for creative projects and in case of seekers, it provides them a way to involve in new and innovative projects.

Business Model Canvas on Odesk and its strengths

Odesk is a global market place from which a large number of persons are getting online jobs and getting money for the work done by them. There are so many services that are provided on Odesk by a large number of persons who are skillful for providing those services. A large number of contractors are also there for appointing people to get their work done at reasonable cost. It provides proper security to the clients to get paid for the services they provided to the contractor even if the contractor is far away from the client. A person can check the history of contractor before start working with him/her as each contractor gets feedback after getting his/her each project completed by the client. So Odesk is the favorite crowdsourcing platform of several of freelancers.

Leverages of Odesk on technology to create value

Odesk offers all its services free to employers and charges only employees when they have earned from this platform. Odesk does not charge for bidding like some of the other crowdsourcing platforms. It is fast, reliable and safe crowdsourcing platform. It provides complete assurance about the billing of work done by various freelancers on this platform. Moreover, it provides its services in two ways, first one is hourly project and second one is fixed price projects. (Sloane, P., 2011). It is not the responsibility of the Odesk to pay the employees who have worked for certain employers ,employers are responsible to pay for getting their work done from freelancers and Odesk cuts some amount which is given to the freelancer by employer. It provides complete protection to both seekers and solvers in terms of value proposition by providing money back guarantee to the seeker if he/she is not satisfied with the work done by freelancer and if any issue arises, then Odesk provides complete help to solve the issue as soon as possible. Odesk is secure and trustable crowdsourcing platform using which a seeker can hire, manage the pay the experts or freelancers from around the world and solvers can choose when and what to work, what to charge and where to work.

Opportunities posed by Odesk

Following are the opportunities posed by Odesk:-

• The feedback systems and Escrow systems in the Odesk provides the sense of security. A freelancer’s reputation can be easily checked by feedback system. Moreover, Odesk has Escrow system which protects the users from any kind of money fraud.
• Fixed price contracts helps an freelancer to earn money in bulk
• Freelancers can apply for job and get paid for it anytime or anywhere there is need to have an internet connection only.
• There is a bidding system using which freelancers bid against other freelancers and a small amount of money get cut from the amount they are paid by contractor.

Threats posed by Odesk

Followings are the threats posed by Odesk:-

• Odesk also have clients who asked a freelancer for trial jobs and after getting that work done, he/she will not pay the freelance for the job.
• Communicational gaps may affect the working on the complex projects
• There is no particular guarantee for the professional behavior of the freelancers as a freelancer can miss the milestone or take long time to get back to a particular client.
• It is very difficult to hire someone for a personal assistant jobs if an agency applies.

Conclusion

Odesk serves a large number of employer and employees. It is the world’s largest and fastest growing crowdsourcing platform. It deals in providing various services like web designing, SEO, content writing, data entry job, network and information systems, design and multimedia and business services etc. It provides complete transparency between the employers and employees for avoiding any issue. Every employer and employees get feedback after the completion of the work. So it is the safest and reliable crowdsourcing platform for doing and getting work done online.

Appendices

Business Model Canvas……………………………………………………..7

References

Doan, A., Ramakrishnan, R., & Halevy, A. (2011). Crowdsourcing systems on the world-wide web. Communications Of The ACM, 54(4), 86–96.

Kim, Y., Collins-Thompson, K., & Teevan, J. Crowdsourcing for Robustness in Web Search.

Sloane, P. (2011). A guide to open innovation and crowdsourcing (1st ed.). London: Kogan Page.

Harth, A., & Koch, N. (2012). Current trends in web engineering (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer.

oDesk,. (2014). oDesk, the world’s largest online workplace. Retrieved 2 September 2014, from https://www.odesk.com/