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Crowdsourcing 3

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corus

corus

Mechanical
Nov 6, 2002
3,165
I heard about a new buzz word called crowdsourcing where companies can post problems they may have on to a web site and allow millions of enthusiastic amateurs to solve their problems rather than have their own R&D people do it. The web site gets paid a small fee for posting the problem and thousands are paid if a solution is found.

Have any companies tried this and does it work? Is this just a cheaper way of outsourcing without needing to know urdu? How can I get rich?

corus
 
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It sounds like another scheme on the part of lazy project managers to rid themselves of pesky engineers. Who needs engineers if I can simply throw out all my questions to the world and get good answers?

Of course, the PM will have to read the answers and pick the right one...
 
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Does that then make this site full of lazy engineers DaveVikingPE ?
 
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Nononono!! any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Another option (which saves you the hassle of having to moderate a forum) is: casually throw your technical problem into the management team meeting, and you will get all the answers you ever needed and more (see also the Corny management sayings thread in the Eng Language forum).
 
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Corus,
I can answer your questions for $15...each.
 
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Lazy people don't ask questions.

Wait, that contradicts what I said earlier... Hmmm... The lazy PM will still have to figure out how to ask questions?

Aha! The lazy PM will PAY someone to ask questions for him!
 
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"Aha! The lazy PM will PAY someone to ask questions for him!"

Reminds me of an arrogant put-down I got many years ago when asked what I did for a living. The reply I got was "I employ people to tell people to write computer programs."
 
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corus
to begin with urdu is officially spoken in Pakistan. I suppose you were referring to Hindi,which is spoken in India.

To get rich join any of the US companies in India,who will pay you well and you need to spend less here.
 
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corus, less facetiously there are engineering web sites on-line that offer to pay you for answers. I occasionally get as far as leafing through the unanswered questions, but as with Google Answers, the hourly rate doesn't seem attractive unless you already know the exact answer, and the rather subjective payment methods leave me cold.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
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corus: A few years ago, I learned that certain pharmaceutical companies are using this method to find syntheses for intermediates etc. They post a molecule on a site and offer a set fee for the best synthesis for that particular compound, generally including the requirement to make and send them a testable sample using that synthetic method. Basically, people do the work on spec and the company reaps the benefit without having to do the work. Then they focus on making the molecule which makes them the big profit rather than screwing around optimizing the synthesis of intermediates. Guess there are enough labs out there with nothing to do, or with lax enough controls that people can do this spec work illicitly without being noticed etc. Former government labs in eastern bloc countries come to mind.
 
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The internet is the answer to everything... a substantial number of students post their homework on the net and pay for it to be answered.
Some teachers are having to web search to try and identify students who are posting for answers...(and some of them may answer themseleves just for the extra income?).

But hey, if you are worried these sites will take your job you have two options, beat management to it and get the answers for yourself and then submit them to management or start posting your own solutions to problems.

Of course, it won't last because before too long everyone will be so dumbed down that no one will be able to be anything other than a consumer (e.g. get a job as a mystery shopper).

JMW
 
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