crowdsourcing

How to ensure correctness of data gathered via crowdsourcing?


I have a site where users are entering data of some products they buy.

How do I ensure correctness of data entered via crowdsourcing (enabling users to vote/edit products) minimizing amount of work that needs to be done by administrator? I'm looking for some how-tos, best practices, etc.


Solution

  • As a high level data can be gathered from the 'crowd' with an associated correctness value. Looking at SO, an answer or response from someone with 1000+ rep, has more wieght that a casual user. Look for validations and triangulation, if it's a single voice in the crowd that you're listening too, then it's probably not worth that much. If other voices join then you know you're onto something, again in SO terms we all get a chance to upvote questions.

    I've recently seen some really good iPhone apps which rely in crowd sourcing for their data, and then validate it by asking other users if it's correct.