MOVING THE CROWD AT THREADLESS

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model already in use by businesses such as Threadless.com, iStockphoto.com, and InnoCentive.com. This model, which harnesses the collective intelligence of a crowd of Web users through an open-call format, has the potential for government and non-profit applications. Yet, in order to explore new applications for the crowdsourcing model, there must be a better understanding of why crowds participate in crowdsourcing processes. Based on 17 interviews conducted via instant messenger with members of the crowd at Threadless, the present study adds qualitatively rich data on a new crowdsourcing case to an existing body of quantitative data on motivations for participation in crowdsourcing. Four primary motivators for participation at Threadless emerge from these interview data: the opportunity to make money, the opportunity to develop one's creative skills, the potential to take up freelance work, and the love of community at Threadless. A fifth theme is also discussed that addresses the language of ‘addiction’ used by the interviewees to describe their activity on the site. Understanding this kind of ‘addiction’ in an online community is perhaps the most important finding for future public crowdsourcing ventures. This study develops a more complete – though ongoing – composite of what motivates the crowd to participate in crowdsourcing applications generally, information crucial to adapt the crowdsourcing model to new forms of problem-solving.

Keywords:

• crowdsourcing
• motivations
• instant messaging interviews
• online community
• addiction

Notes

Threadless.com is available at http://www.threadless.com.

iStockphoto.com is available at http://www.istockphoto.com.

InnoCentive.com is available at http://www.innocentive.com.

Star Wreck is available at http://www.starwreck.com.

skinnyCorp's motto is available on their home page at http://www.skinnycorp.com.

All names appearing in this manuscript are pseudonyms to protect the identity of participants.

Interview transcript excerpts are spelled in context in this manuscript, as true as possible to the expressive capabilities available to participants (including capitalization); the limitations of mediated synchronous communication; and the limitations of the specific IM program used for interviewing. Each discrete message is displayed in its own line of text. Use of brackets in the manuscript indicates either (1) unimportant commentary omitted by the author, or (2) the participant's intended edits, compiled by the author for ease of reading. In the latter case, for example, if a participant types ‘shortwhiel’ in one line, but immediately follows it up with ‘short while’ in another message, it is understood that the participant intended to correct his or her spelling error, per the norms of IM conversations. In a case such as this, ‘[short while]’ is included in place of the initial instance of misspelling.