CROWD MOTIVATION & THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGYProf. Thierry Rayna!

@ThierryRayna

CROWD15

About me…

Professor of Economics, Novancia Business School Paris!

Affiliate Professor, Imperial College London!

Mentor, currently 5 start-ups

Joint Research Group

CROWD MOTIVATION

The Power of the CrowdOr is it?

Wikipedia users: billions!

Wikipedia registered contributors: millions!

Wikipedia active contributors: thousands

Why so few?!

Is it enough?!

How can we make sure the right people contribute?

WHAT CAN ECONOMICS TELL US ABOUT

CROWD MOTIVATION?

The Tale of the Free Rider

Goods in Economics

Rival Non-rival

Excludable Private good Club good

Non-excludable Common pool Public good

The Free Rider Problem

A rational individual knows no one can be excluded!

Why contribute to what you can get for free?!

Why pay for free riders?!

The ‘rational’ behaviour is to free ride!

No public good can be produced without state intervention (and taxation)

Does the Free Rider really exist?

Yes …!

… but only partially …!

People contribute 30-50% of what they should!

Depends on the country, age, culture, gender !

… but contributions decrease over time

Takeaway #1

The crowd tends to contribute much less (time, money) than the actual value of the product/project has for them!

This contribution most likely will decrease over time even if they value the service/product

How many users report problems?!

How many users just keep the app open?

The Tale of the Whale & the Minnows

A little

A lot= € 1

A little

A lot

Takeaway #2

Make sure anyone can contribute… (I mean it, anyone)!

From €0.01 to infinity and beyond!

Create options for people to contribute with time if they don’t contribute with money!

Blend crowdfunding and crowdsourcing (and vice versa)

Whales from MarsA speaking role in the movie!

A framed copy of the page of the script that includes your line. !

Premiere and the after party. You are, after all, in the movie. !

Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo pack, T-shirt and a pdf of the shooting script.!

$ 10,000, all taken

A Whale for Coffee

+

= $610,000

Minnows

OUYA: $10-25, reserve username (1,770)!

Coolest Cooler: $ 5-25, thanks forever (1,078)!

Pono: $5-50, love + thanks!

Pebble: $1–99, updates (2,615)!

Veronica Mars: $1-10, eternal gratitude + updates (5,938)

Crowdsourcing Whales

Editors 1-1000Editors 1001-2000Editors 2001-3000Editors 3001-4000Editors 4001-5000Editors 5001-6000Editors 6001-7000Editors 7001-8000Editors 8001-9000Editors 9001-10000Rest of Editors

Number of Wikipedia (EN) edits

The Tale of the Dark Side of the Crowd

Supply exceeds demand?How do you know the right people are contributing? How do you get the right people to contribute?!

Loose relationship between perceived and actual social value !

How do I know that what I contribute is valuable?!

Poor contribution might ‘crowd out’ good ones!

« Web 2.0 is Cheap: Supply exceeds Demand » http://ssrn.com/abstract=1371077

Takeaway #3

Think ‘pull’ and not just ‘push’!

Maximising contribution is also about finding high potential contributors who for some reasons have been left out.

WHAT ABOUT MOTIVATIONS?

Different types of co-creation

DIFFERENTIATED

INTEGRATED

MASSCUSTOM

INPU

T

OUTPUT

Crowdsourcing

Crowdfunding

Open SourcePrinted objects

Printed food

Crowd-customisation?

User manufacturing

Different types of motivation

Direct benefit!

Monetary rewards!

!

Non-monetary rewards:!

Enjoyment and fun!

Intellectual stimulation!

Peer recognition!

Reputation & professional status!

Socialisation

Different challenges

Trust & social capital!

Issue of group vs individual rewards!

Finding lead users!

Finding the right mix of motivations

Takeaway #4

Motivations are complex and multidimentional !

Getting most of the crowd usually requires multidimensional incentives

‘Quantum Economics’

For very small amounts of money, the traditional ‘laws’ of economics do not seem to apply!

Contributors prefer receiving nothing than something too small!

Backers may pay something small for nothing in return!

Hard to figure out!

THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

How Can Technology Help?

It can help by lowering the cost of contribution!

It can help figure out what the correct incentive scheme is

Takeaway #5

Don’t think just about active crowdsourcing, think passive crowdsourcing

Big Data to the Rescue

Better to ask zero than 0.99!Yes, but it depends on genre, bands, fans…

Takeaway #6

Big Data and data mining are critical when trying to make most of the crowd!

No ‘silver bullet’: the right strategy changes for each particular campaign and over time!

Monitoring is critical

#1 contributions sub-optimal and decreasing!

#2 ultra-wide array of contribution (time AND money)!

#3 don’t wait for high contributors, find them!

#4 give multidimensional incentives!

#5 enable passive crowdsourcing through technology!

#6 use big data continuously to fine-tune incentives

QUESTIONS?

trayna@novancia.fr!@ThierryRayna