Crowdsourcing: A Primer and Its implications for Systems Engineering

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is an overarching term that denotes a number of ways to use the web as means to enlist a large number of individuals to perform a particular task. The tasks can range from simply providing an opinion, to contributing material, to solving a problem. Because the term crowdsourcing is used to denote a variety of activities in many different contexts, strong opinions have formed in many minds. This paper is an attempt to inform the reader of the complexity that underlies the simple term "crowdsourcing." We then describe the connection between the DARPA Adaptive Vehicle Make program with the potential limitations of crowdsourcing complex tasks using examples from industry. Using these examples, we present a research motivation detailing areas to be improved within current crowdsourcing frameworks. Finally, an agent-based simulation using machine learning techniques is defined, preliminary results are presented, and future research directions are described.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA566807

Entities

People

  • Alex Burnap
  • Panos Papalambros
  • Richard J. Gerth

Organizations

  • University of Michigan

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Programming
  • Data Sets
  • Engineering
  • Ground Vehicles
  • Human Behavior
  • Intellectual Property
  • Learning
  • Machine Learning
  • Models
  • Operating Systems
  • Prototypes
  • Simulations
  • Social Media
  • Supervised Machine Learning
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Theoretical Analysis.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy