How Waze uses Crowdsourcing in its best Waze

13

October

2019

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Have you ever peacefully driven down the road, when suddenly a huge wall of cars hit you? You quickly try to switch lanes, or you try to take the first turn, however, no matter what you try to do soon you are completely stuck in all the traffic. In recent years, traffic congestion has become a major problem in cities due to the booming concentration of population and activities in urban areas. Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to reach 65% by 2050 (United Nations, 2018). Navigating through the maze of traffic congestion is for many people one of life’s biggest headaches, unless you use the ‘Waze’ application.

waze

Waze is a free, real-time, crowdsourced traffic- and navigation application empowered by word’s largest community of drivers. By using GPS navigation software, Waze calculates routes to help drivers navigate to their destination, warns about potential traffic congestion on the road and suggests the optimal, shortest or fastest routes to this destination (Harburn, 2016). Furthermore, Waze enables users to alert each other about road situations, accidents, police control or other route details (Parr, 2009). On top of that, Waze gathers real-time data from its users (drivers in this case) to monitor and relay traffic information for its maps in more than 185 countries around the globe. This data is collected from the crowd in three ways: 1) users actively report on live events that occur on the road; 2) users passively relay information about driving speed and traffic conditions when they actively make us of Waze, or when the app is open in the background of their mobile device; 3) Waze contains a network with volunteers who continuously edit the maps that is used in the app (Muller, 2018). By doing so, Waze collects the most accurate and latest information from drivers who are currently on the road and helps other drivers of the community to save time for being stuck in traffic jam, money spend on gasoline (Harburn, 2016) as well as it may save you a fine.

Although Waze may sound as a promising solution for the rapidly increasing population and traffic in urban areas, we should also critically ask ourselves about potential risks or downsides that may occur. Since Waze redirects drivers to avoid traffic jams or cut travel times, they often suggest more dangerous alternative side roads. Can Waze be held responsible if accidents or dangerous traffic situations happen when drivers use the Waze application? Also, as Waze subtracts large amount of data from its users around the globe, we have to think about the consequences of Waze’ data collection. What can be the impact of gathering so much data (e.g. driver, drive style etc.) on our privacy and the law? Moreover, what could be the consequences if Waze misuses the data?

 

Sources:

Muller, K. (2018). How crowdsourcing is changing the waze we drive. Digital HBS. [Online] Available at:https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/how-crowdsourcing-is-changing-the-waze-we-drive/

Parr, B. (2009). Waze Uses Crowdsourcing to Bring You Real-Time Traffic Info. Mashable. [Online] Available at: https://mashable.com/2009/05/18/waze/?europe=true

Harburn, L. (2016). One of the best waze to use crowdsourcing. Social Media for Business Performance. [Online] Available at: http://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2016/06/one-of-the-best-waze-to-use-crowdsourcing/

United Nations. (2018). 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN. United Nations. [Online] Retrieved from:  https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html

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Industry Disruptions in Currency Exchange Business

3

October

2016

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I am sure everyone has once in a while criticized institutions and banks for exploiting their customers by overcharging customers during currency exchanges. Banks typically set their own exchange rates much above the real exchange rate and have several hidden costs that are not so apparent at the offset. A typical currency exchange through major banks could cost as much as 13% for a round trip exchange.

Enters TransferWise

TransferWise is a British peer to peer money transfer service established in 2011. It takes sharing economy concept to a different level as it allows the sharing/ exchange of multiple currencies directly between users of different countries, eliminating the need of banks. A person wishing to exchange Euros for Pounds can use TransferWise, which will find another person looking to convert his Pounds for Euros. Since the money never really leaves the country and is paid out from the local euro or pound account, users can avoid the costs associated with money transfers and banking fees. For example: Transferring from Pounds (£) to Euros (€), a typical £1000 transfer would result in the recipient receiving €1139.70 as compared to €1099.17 received while using one of the major banks. TransferWise charges customers 0.5% per transaction which is substantially lower than the transaction costs charged by major banks worldwide and takes lesser time as well for transactions.

TransferWise is a typical example of an industry disruption technology that challenges the power of long established institutions and forces them to change in order to compete. Since the transfer through TransferWise does not really initiate a transfer between countries and simply uses algorithms and technology to redirect money transfers locally, users are able to make use of this crowdsourced currency exchange and avoid currency values lost during conversion and transfer across borders. The company has seen huge growth recently and is currently moving over £500 million every month globally and covering 59 countries and 504 currency routes.

The TransferWise system can be compared to the traditional ‘hawala’ money transfer system that is still the primary source of money transfers abroad in Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Under this system, ‘hawala brokers’ have an established network worldwide based on reputation and performance, and these brokers handle transfers without the actual transfer of money. For example: Consider a resident sitting in New Delhi wants to transfer a sum of ₹500,000 to his son studying in Rotterdam for his education, the hawala broker in New Delhi would simply call his contact in Rotterdam who will provide the Euro (€) conversion of ₹500,000 to the student. Note that no actual currency transfer is involved and the Rotterdam broker will simply get reimbursed in another transaction that goes the other way. However, there is very limited or no use of technology involved in this hawala process and has been working efficiently in these countries informally through an honor system for decades.

TransferWise has successfully replicated the same strategy and made use of Information Technology to its maximum potential. Just like Airbnb has turned every homeowner into a hotelier, TransferWise has been successful in turning every person into a broker (without them even thinking of themselves as broker). This particular example shows the power of disruptive technology to make use of existing methods and challenge the established methods with effective use of technology.

 

Future-of-Money-Transfer

References and interesting articles to look at for further insight:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/transferwise/how-does-it-work-and-is-it-safe/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2015/10/04/disrupting-fx-exchange-talking-with-transferwise-as-it-hits-1-billion-in-u-s-transactions/#5bd6bdb83d5f

http://www.n2moneymatters.com/2011/03/what-is-hawala-all-you-want-to-know.html

https://transferwise.com

TransferWise: Rebel, What is Your Cause?

Crazy High Currency Exchange Fees: How to Stop the Banks from Taking Advantage of You

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MyStarbucksIdea.com: Starbucks’ Succesful Crowdsourcing Platform

20

October

2015

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Schermafbeelding 2015-10-20 om 16.29.04

To warm everyone up for this weeks topic, I did a little research on crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the process in which companies or individuals engage a ‘crowd’ to contribute to a specific project or cause. Usually the crowd will benefit from their contribution, hence there is a common goal, which is often efficiency, innovation or problem solving (Crowdsourcing Week 2015).

An example of a company acing crowdsourcing is Starbucks and its successful platform MyStarbucksIdea.com. The platform was launched in 2008, which positions Starbucks as one of the first adopters of engaging a crowd in product development on such a large scale. In the year of the launch of the website, consumers had submitted over 70,000 ideas, generating valuable information to the company. In 2014, over 190,000 ideas were submitted, of which 300 have been implemented by Starbucks (Gurley, G 2014).

The platform is built for customers to submit ideas for better products, ways to improve the customer experience, and allows customers to provide feedback on products and experiences. This provides Starbucks with free ideas, feedback, customer loyalty, an edge over its competition and the ability to replace costly and lengthy focus groups for product development. On the other hand, consumers are eager to contribute as they have the opportunity to create a better product for themselves. Customers tend to get annoyed when companies make numerous changes without consulting their opinion. Hence, Starbucks has created a win-win situation for the company and customers.

Everyone can create an account on the website and submit their own ideas, vote and comment on ideas submitted by others. This virtual platform has become an online community with the goal to share and discuss ideas revolving around Starbucks.

static-starbucks-final-withstar
Infographic showing the growing number of submissions and implemented ideas 2008-2012

What do you think about MyStarbucksIdea.com and similar platforms? Why do you think some companies are still lagging behind when it comes to this type of social media engagement? Is it hard to implement? Can you think of any drawbacks of crowdsourcing?

References

Crowdsourcing Week. (2015). What Is Crowdsourcing?. Available: http://crowdsourcingweek.com/what-is-crowdsourcing/. Last accessed 19th Oct 2015.

Gurley, G. (2014). Starbucks’ Crowdsourcing Success. Available:
http://blog.betterific.com/2014/03/25/starbucks-crowdsourcing-success/. Last accessed 19th Oct 2015.

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From smartphones to Phoneblocks.

29

September

2013

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The other day I was browsing around Facebook, checking on some old friends what they have been up to and I came across this video that was shared by one of them through 9gag called “Forget Samsung and Apple. This is the future…” My first reaction when I read the title was something like “Chyeah, sure… Like you know what you are talking about!” I honestly thought it was another attempt of Nokia, or any other long forgotten phone manufacturer for that matter, to get to the spotlight of the phone industry by making a viral video. Despite my initial skepticism, I decided to watch the video and see what they had to offer.

So after watching this I was astonished. A customizable phone which will not only be all you want but will also attempt to save the world? Amazing, finally, right? But, honestly, this was not really the main point that caught my attention. To my academically trained brain (that´s how I like to call it when I find the terms to be more interesting than the content) the focus point of this video was the amazing combination of crowdsourcing, crowdspeaking and usage of social media in the attempt to launch a new mobile phone.

I have to say, in a sense it reminded me of the Threadless case. Phoneblocks seems to be the same concept built on the community, offering a platform to be creative and to gain a great product from it. However, with a slight variation of the industry, from apparel to electronics. Phoneblocks, if successful, will give lot of opportunities to creative and handy people around the world who are interested in technology and have the interest in building their own blocks. Crowdsourcing 101. We all gain. We could have great blocks we could use on our phones and the creators (as I assume) would gain a slight profit from this.

But for all this to be possible to happen, the whole idea would have to be realized. How, you ask me? As they said in the video, they were using crowdspeaking to raise the buzz and interest in potential investors, companies, designers, people. All this by using social media and people from all over the world who would share their content all at the same time. What is the idea behind this? Well people sharing the same content at the same time would flood the internet with Phoneblocks and nobody would be able to run away from it. People would get suddenly interested and would want to find more about it. Eventually, it would reach the companies and people who can make a difference not only by sponsoring but also by offering ideas and technological knowledge to make this idea happen. But for all this, a huge effort from the broad public would be needed. A crowd, community that desired to change the phone industry and make it what they want. I think it is a brilliant idea with the use of social media to start strong with this project.

Only future will show how this project will evolve and if, in real, the social media boom will be successful start of the journey of Phoneblock. But, after seeing the success of their viral video (more than 15 million views in 2 weeks) I am fairly positive about the outcome and can´t wait to see how this will evolve.

 

For more info go to: www.phoneblocks.com

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Kickstarter.com: Kickstart your project

10

October

2012

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There has been a lot of talk about ‘prosuming’, the idea that the customer can co-create a product. This happens on various levels. However, there is always a company that builds the platform, and uses it’s own advertisements to make money of the products. A good example is Threadless. You can design your own clothing, but it still has a Threadless logo on it (perhaps only on the label). The same goes for Starbucks, in which ideas are ‘crowdsourced’ and may or may not be used in the final products of Starbucks. This phenomenon is called open innovation. I would like to argue that this isn’t open at all. It is based on the platform given by the company, and the company still holds responsibility. It is semi-open innovation.

What is (in my opinion) open innovation? A platform to create and produce your own ideas, any way you want. In one of the lectures Quirky was mentioned. This is a site that allows users to create there own products, and pitch them to a crowd. Users of the site then vote on it to start the production of the product. Afterwards, people can buy the product for a certain amount of money. The production process is however being managed through the site. Marketing, production advise etc. is al being monitored. So it is again, not completely open.

Then there is Kickstarter.com. This site offers a very basic platform to people who want to pitch their ideas on a site. Every project creator sets their project’s funding goal and a deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers’ credit cards are charged when time expires. If the project falls short, no one is charged.

The amount of money you can pledge is predefined. So let’s say someone is creating a new bike, he can ask for a pledge of $10. This will most likely get you (as a backer) nothing in return (maybe a keychain of the new product). However, if the pledge is $150, you can get one of the bikes if the project makes it’s goal. The eventual retail price will be a lot higher, but because you are an early-bird, you get a discount.

So what kind of projects are being funded of Kickstarter? Well basically, these are the categories: Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film & Video, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology and Theater. Since the launch of Kickstarter in April 2009, there has been pledged $350,000,000! There were over 30,000 successful projects.

A few examples of the funded projects:

Product Design:
[gigya src=”http://www.kickstarter.com/swf/kickplayer.swf” width=”480″ height=”360″ allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” wmode=”opaque” flashvars=”backcolor=000000&file=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F325425%2Fvideo-167735-h264_high.mp4&image=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F325425%2Fphoto-full.jpg&project_creators=A+Product+Design+project+by+Gamila+Company%3A+Aly+%26+Beth+Khalifa&project_title=Impress+Coffee+Brewer&project_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2Finventiveculture%2Fimpress-coffee-brewer&screencolor=000000&skin=%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fswf%2Fkickskin.swf” ]

Music:
[gigya src=”http://www.kickstarter.com/swf/kickplayer.swf” width=”480″ height=”360″ allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” wmode=”opaque” flashvars=”backcolor=000000&file=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F336849%2Fvideo-162806-h264_high.mp4&image=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F336849%2Fphoto-full.jpg&project_creators=A+Music+project+by+Adam%2C+Edel+%26+Rocky&project_title=Mass+at+Midnight%3A+A+Christmas+CD&project_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2Fadamedelandrocky%2Fmass-at-midnight-a-christmas-cd&screencolor=000000&skin=%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fswf%2Fkickskin.swf” ]

Art:
[gigya src=”http://www.kickstarter.com/swf/kickplayer.swf” width=”480″ height=”360″ allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” wmode=”opaque” flashvars=”backcolor=000000&file=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F48145%2Fvideo-86036-h264_high.mp4&image=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fksr%2Fprojects%2F48145%2Fphoto-full.jpg&project_creators=A+Public+Art+project+by+Asheer+Akram&project_title=Pakistani+Cargo+Truck+Initiative&project_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2F56345699%2Fpakistani-cargo-truck-initiative&screencolor=000000&skin=%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fswf%2Fkickskin.swf” ]

As for open innovation, the entire process is managed by the project starter self. So no intervening from Kickstarter. Kickstarter only manages the money until the projects funding goal is reached. The only downside for us Europeans is that the shipping costs are a bit higher. The other downside is that payments are only possible through Amazon checkout.

I really urge everyone to take a look at this site. You can get a lot of handy and funny products for a low price. If the funding is unsuccesfull, you’ll just get your money back!

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