Crowdsourcing competitions often hijacked, according to study

Crowdsourcing competitions, popular with companies seeking to tap into groups of knowledge, are often diminished by malicious behaviour, according to a new study.

The research, published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, found the opennesss of crowdsourced competitions, particularly those with a “winner takes all” prize, made them vulnerable to attack.

Crowdsourcing has become an increasingly popular way for companies to find new logos and even ad campaigns, bypassing professional agencies in the process. Some have said it is devaluing the rates and roles of freelancers.

The researchers used game theory to analyse the trade off between the potential for increased productivity from crowdsourcing a project, and the possibility of it being set back by malicious behaviour. They cited the DARPA Network Challenge as an example of a hijacked crowdsourcing competition, in which the organisers were left to sort through many fake submissions, including fabricated pictures of people impersonating DARPA officials.Research leader and University of Southampton computer scientist Victor Naroditskiy said companies should consider malicious behaviour a cost of crowdsourcing, given the research showed it was the norm.