A Six-Month, Multi-platform Investigation of Creative Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing platforms can be roughly divided into two kinds: the ones that offer simple, short, and unskilled work (microtasking) and those that offer complex, longer tasks, which are difficult to break down and usually involve creativity (macrotasking). Past research has mapped the landscape of microtask crowdsourcing. Little, however, is known about where commercial platforms stand when it comes to creative crowdsourcing. Which types of creative tasks are offered? How are these remunerated? Do all platforms facilitate the same type of creative work? Given the increasing importance that creative crowdsourcing is expected to play in the near future, in this chapter we partially map the current state of this type of online work over time. During a six-month period, and on a daily basis, we collected public data from seven creative crowdsourcing platforms. Our data, covering more than thirteen thousand tasks, show that there are plenty of graphic design tasks but better financial rewards for other types of creative tasks, as well as a trend for creative crowd work platforms to offer longer tasks. Judging from the total rewards in those six months, we can also conclude that creative crowdsourcing will benefit from a shift to dynamic rather than fixed rewards, but also that this type of crowd work is still at an embryonic stage and has growth potential. Finally, our results highlight the need for a platform data watchdog, as well as the need for a more nuanced perspective of creative crowdsourcing, distinguishing between the types of platforms within this genre of online work.