The Effective Use Of Crowdsourcing In E-Governance

The rise of Web 2.0 paradigm has empowered the Internet users to share information and generate content on social networking and media sharing platforms such as wikis and blogs. The trend of harnessing the wisdom of public using Web 2.0 distributed networks through open calls is termed as ‘Crowdsourcing’. In addition to businesses, this powerful idea of using collective intelligence or the ‘wisdom of crowd’ applies to different situations, such as in governments and non-profit organizations which have started utilizing crowdsourcing as an essential problem-solving tool. In addition, the widespread and easy access to technologies such as the Internet, mobile phones and other communication devices has resulted in an exponential growth in the use of crowdsourcing for government policy advocacy, e-democracy and e-governance during the past decade. However, utilizing collective intelligence and efforts of public to find solutions to real life problems using web 2.0 tools does come with its share of associated challenges and limitations. This paper aims at identifying and examining the value-adding strategies which contribute to the success of crowdsourcing in e-governance. The qualitative case study analysis and emphatic design methodology are employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified strategic and functional components, by analyzing the characteristics of some of the notable cases of crowdsourcing in e-governance and the findings are tabulated and discussed. The paper concludes with the limitations and the implications for future research

Civic Crowdfunding and Local Government: An Examination into Projects, Scope, and Implications for Local Government

Recently, through the development of online technology, civic crowdfunding has emerged as a way in which to connect citizens to community problems and projects. The growth and early success of the field underscores the importance of better understanding civic crowdfunding, how it works, and how it may impact local government. Through a mixed-methods design, this study investigates the growing field of civic crowdfunding in an effort to better understand what types of projects are proposed, where they are proposed, and why some civic crowdfunding proposals may be successful while others are not. Strengths and challenges of civic crowdfunding are discussed, as well as implications for participants, local government, and the growth of the field. The results highlight several different types of projects being proposed on civic crowdfunding platforms with the most prevalent being sustainability projects. These projects are generally low in cost, non-controversial, and visible within the proposing community. The results further reveal money and engagement to be the most important factors in determining project success. The lower the project goal, the more money raised, and the more individuals participating in a given campaign all have significant impacts on whether a project proposal achieves its funding goal. Finally, implications are discussed and ideas for future research are offered

What Makes a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign? A Case Study of Success Factors in Reward-Based Crowdfunding of Technology-Based Campaigns

Crowdfunding has become a popular method for founders of new ventures to acquire funding from individuals all around the world for varied projects. However, the factors influencing crowdfunding success are not well understood. This research aims to identify what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign by determining factors leading to success in crowdfunding campaigns, as well as explaining why and how those proposed factors influence crowdfunding success. The primary data for this qualitative case study were collected from three reward-based crowdfunding campaign founders in technology-based projects by using semi-structured interviews. Secondary data were gathered through direct observation from the case campaign websites. An inductive approach was used for this research. Thus, the analysis and theory building came during and after the data gathering. The research data were categorized and analyzed within and across the cases, and finally compared with existing research and theories. The research results indicated that there are at least seven factors influencing crowdfunding success, including product, pre-campaign community, team, presentation, awareness, preparation, and authenticity. Additionally, several explanations were provided to help understand why these factors were considered important. The main implications of this research concern product attributes and pre-campaign communities. The campaign founders considered products and various product attributes as one of the most important factors in crowdfunding success, suggesting further research of their dynamics in different campaign categories in reward-based crowdfunding. In addition, crowdfunding campaigns were found to benefit from pre-campaign communities by allowing crowds to be committed and involved in projects even before they enter a crowdfunding stage, thus increasing attention and the amount of potential funders. Finally, this research argues that more research is required to better understand the crowdfunding phenomenon by gathering data from new and diverse sources.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Accelerating Innovation for Development: Evaluation Report

The Accelerating Innovation for Development Initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation was a US$16.5 million effort approved in 2007 aimed at:1. Identifying and demonstrating that open and user-driven innovation models are effective and efficient innovation processes for the needs of the poor; and2. Significantly increasing the application of these models to meet the needs of the poorThe evaluation covers the grantmaking and non-grant work of the Initiative from 2007-2009 on open, user centered, and user led innovation. The evaluation was conducted from July 2011 to February 2012 by an independent evaluation team. The purposes of the evaluation of the Innovation Initiative relate to informing other Rockefeller Foundation initiatives and the work of Foundation grantees and partners; demonstrating accountability for funds spent under the Initiative; and contributing knowledge to the field as a public good

Entrepreneurship and Equity Crowdfunding: A Research Agenda

The potential of ‘the crowd’ to enhance investments, especially at levels previously that could reduce the financial constrain faced by new ventures, has led to the introductions of regulations to dominate crowdfunding activities. One of regulated areas is equity crowdfunding, which has the potential to disrupt the existing market provision for equity finance to early stage firms. This paper aims to provide a theoretical review of the extant literature. The results identify, from the perspective of entrepreneurs, equity investors and government, the key issues that potentially differentiate crowdfunding from other sources of equity finance and how these issues change the relationship between entrepreneurs and potential funders. Based upon the findings of the theoretical review, the paper suggests research directions in which future researchers can employ behaviour theory, agency theory and signalling theory to explore, investigate and further develop our understanding about equity crowdfunding within the entrepreneurial context