At the start of the year I made my usual 5 Predictions for the next 5 years. My very first prediction was that we would see more and more crowdsourcing and that it would start to become a viable way to make a living.
While we’re still a few years out (remember these were 5 year predictions), today we read about an app that will allow you to make $19,000 a year by doing small little information gathering tasks. While most people aren’t going to try and live off of that, it could provide a good secondary income.
First, here’s my original prediction:
1. Byte Sized Work and Making a Living in the Crowd
As portable computing devices get smaller and more powerful and the cloud fills in the gaps and boosts capabilities more work will continue to shift to outside of the office. Office space will become increasingly irrelevant, especially as mobile video conferencing increases, and office hours will become more of a barrier as people have to collaborate with global teams.
Simultaneously, work will continue to be broken down into smaller and smaller portions and yet still require more and more specialty. With more people wanting more flexibility to balance, family, lifestyle, hobbies and work people will start to make respectable (and in some cases significant) income people will be able to take on micro-projects, probably manged through a central service (think design competition sites meets temp service agencies).
Yes people do this today as consultants and freelancers but the difference will be anonymity, cross discipline and self opt-in.
Crowdsourcing Tasks with an iPhone App
Then from GigaOM: Need Some Part Time Work? Use Your iPhone
[A] new app is looking to put some money back, by turning iPhone users into an on-demand mobile workforce. Gigwalkis launching publicly in the App Store after a six-month beta, offering a way for iPhone users to make up to $1,600 a month doing temporary mobile tasks like collecting and reporting real world data with their phones.
The app allows companies of all sizes to quickly deploy mobile workers that can send back data from the field. Real estate companies can use it to get pictures of properties, product companies can find out if retailers are properly featuring their wares and mapping providers can use it to confirm points of interest or a street name. TomTom, for instance, uses Gigwalk to verify its maps.
Would you be willing to give up your day job for crowdsourced work?
Similar Posts:
- Making a Living in the Crowd: Update
- Top 5 Predictions For The Next 5 Years [2011 Edition]
- 2010 Social Media Prediction Report Card
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