Crowd-sourcing: Mark Yourself Safe with Social Media
[1B Blog Post 4: Week 8]
“Crowdsourcing defines as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers” - Merriam Webster Online
Within modern society, crowdsourcing is extensively implemented online and can attract broad participatory crowds (Wilson, Bhakoo, Samson 2018). Volunteers or contributors even rely on their organization surrounding via open social media platforms. Having up-to-date information and social mapping is vital when raising awareness and generating a humanitarian response (Mulder, Ferguson, Groenewegen, Boersma & Wolbers, 2016).
(Meier 2014)
Notably, social mapping first became prominent following the 2007 Kenyan election crisis leading to the inauguration of the non-profit organisation Ushahidi (Ford 2012 pp. 34-33). Since then multiple other online-based organisations, such as CrisisCommons, have launched and followed suit.
Naturally, social media giant Facebook has also implemented its own feature for disaster relief and aid called Crisis Response. This feature contains a safety check, community help, and new fundraising tools amongst an easy-to-navigate interface to inform you of the updates most relevant per user (Statt 2017).
(Facebook Crisis Response, 2019)
In particular, this feature provided me reassurance that a friend I made in high school was “marked safe” during the current flooding in Townsville. Ironically, back in 2005, that same friend and I went door-knocking to collect funds for The Salvation Army. This had me reflect upon how we now have multiple methods which are easier, faster and arguably more effective than what we had 14 years ago. Though according to the PFRA (2019), door-to-door fundraising is still a relevant method of crowdsourcing. It still really makes one reflect on our experiences and ourselves as digital citizens. Whilst convenience, current information and an ability to reach a broader demographic is obtained we’ve perhaps decreased the extent of determination we once had. Personally, I would much rather instead make an online donation rather than physically collect funds door-to-door. I can’t help but consider whether this has made myself, like many others, lazier and maybe less likely to physically volunteer. Though I could perhaps now use the exercise what with all these consumed ‘Food for Thought’ posts fuelling my hunger lol.
I hope you enjoyed your food for thought, with a serving of cream cheese danish. Please come again!
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Hi Jasmin, what a fantastic post!
I’m sure we can all agree that social media has really helped in aiding in these times of crisis. The Facebook feature of being marked safe is a good point and something that i’m not sure what we would do without in our current day. The images you’ve chosen are very informative. I agree that we don’t see door to door fundraising anymore and had personally not noticed the shift to online. I agree that it is a preferred method to donate online now.
Thanks! Tayla
