Crowd computing: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Work distributed across Internet to substitute computers}}

{{more footnotes|date=August 2012}}

'''Crowd computing''' is a form of distributed work where tasks that are hard for computers to do, are handled by large numbers of humans distributed across the internet.

'''Crowd computing''' Is an overarching term which defines the myriad tools that enable idea sharing, non-hierarchical decision making and the full utilization of the world’s massive [[cognitive surplus]]”-the ability of the world’s population to collaborate on large, sometimes global projects. <ref name=undefined />Shirky, Clay. TED Talk June 2010 http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html Crowd computing brings together the strengths of [[crowdsourcing]], [[automation]] and [[machine learning]].

An early example of crowd computing was the discovery of a gold deposit ___location at the Moribund Red Lake Mine in [[Northern Ontario]]. Using all available data, the company, Goldcorp, Inc. had been unable to identify the ___location of new deposits on their land. In desperation, the CEO put all relevant geological data on the web and created a contest, open to anyone in the world. An obscure firm in Australia used their software and algorithms to crack the puzzle. As a result, the company found an additional 8 million ounces of gold at the mine. The only cost was the nominal [[prize money]] awarded.

'''CrowdIt computing''' Isis an overarching term which defines the myriadencompassing tools that enable idea sharing, non-hierarchical decision making and the full utilization of the world’s massive "[[cognitive surplus]]”" - the ability of the world’s population to collaborate on large, sometimes global projects. <ref name=undefined />Shirky, Clay. TED Talk June 2010 http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html Crowd{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226143403/http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html computing|date=2014-02-26 brings}}</ref> togetherCrowd thecomputing strengthscombines elements of [[crowdsourcing]], [[automation]], [[distributed computing]], and [[machine learning]].

There is also an interpretation of crowd computing for mobile devices, in the context of mobile computing, called mobile crowd computing.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Murray|first=Derek|coauthors=Eiko Yoneki; Jon Crowcroft; Steven Hand|title=The case for crowd computing|journal=Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Networking, systems, and applications on mobile handhelds (MobiHeld'10)|year=2010|pages=39–44|url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1851322.1851334}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fernando|first=Niroshinie|coauthors=Seng W. Loke; Wenny Rahayu|title=Honeybee: A Programming Framework for Mobile Crowd Computing|journal=Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services, (Mobiquitous 2012)|year=2012|url=http://homepage.cs.latrobe.edu.au/sloke/papers/honeybee-mobiquitous12.pdf}}</ref>

Prof. Rob Miller of MIT further defines crowd computing as “harnessing the power of people out in the web to do tasks that are hard for individual users or computers to do alone. Like cloud computing, crowd computing offers elastic, on-demand human resources that can drive new applications and new ways of thinking about technology.” <ref>Miller, Rob. Microsoft research talk, June 19, 2013; http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=194501</ref>

==History==

The practice predates the internet. At the end of the 18th century, the British Royal Astronomers distributed spreadsheets by mail, asking the crowd to help them create maps of the stars and the seas. In the United States during the 1930s, when the government employed hundreds of “human computers” to work on the WPA and the Manhattan Project. <ref>Popper, Ben (17 April 2012). "Crowd computing taps artificial intelligence to revolutionize the power of our collective brains". Venture Beat. Retrieved 8 June 2012</ref>

The modern day microchip made using large crowds for mechanical computation less attractive in the second half of the twentieth century. However, as the volume of data online grew, it became clear to companies like Amazon and Google that there were some things humans were simply better at doing than machines.<ref name="Popper, Ben 2012">Popper, Ben (17 April 2012). "Crowd computing taps artificial intelligence to revolutionize the power of our collective brains". Venture Beat. Retrieved 8 June 2012.</ref>

==See also==

* [[Citizen science|Citizen Science]]

* [[Crowdsourcing]]

* [[Decentralized computing]]

* [[Distributed computing]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

== Further reading==

* Brown, Eric J. and William A. Yarberry, Jr. (2009). The Effective CIO. Boca Raton: [[Taylor and Francis|Taylor & Francis]].

* Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (2010) - {{ISBN |978-1-59420-253-7}}

* {{cite web|last=Hurley Hall|first=Sharon|title=Startup to Watch: Crowd Control|url=http://www.podiumventures.com/blog/13-featured/430-startup-to-watch-crowd-control|publisher=Podium Ventures|accessdate=8 June 2012}}

* {{cite news|last=Popper|first=Ben|title=Crowd computing taps artificial intelligence to revolutionize the power of our collective brains|url=http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/17/crowdcontrol-ai-crowdsourcing-crowdcomputing-mechanical-turk/|accessdate=8 June 2012|newspaper=Venture Beat|date=17 April 2012}}

* Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age (2010) - ISBN 978-1-59420-253-7

* Surowiecki, J. (2005). [[The Wisdom of Crowds]]. New York: [[Random House]], Inc.

* [http://vinodscaria.rnabiology.org/cheminformatics-crowd-computing-for-tuberculosis Cheminformatics Crowd Computing for Tuberculosis Drug Discovery] (3C4TB) Project Page

==More References==

{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Crowdsourcing]]