How is crowdsourcing like a fried egg?

Crowdsourcing makes a lot of sense to me, but I'm curious about how it actually gets done.  Oddly, (eve to me), I found myself comparing it to a fried egg. (No, I didn't crowdsource that idea, but I could have!)

Crowdsourcing is like a fried egg because:

• There is a central "thing" that the crowdsourcing activity gathers around and supports.  In an egg, a primary purpose of the egg white is to nourish the developing embryo.  In crowdsourcing, the group responses supply information and/or ideas to the entity wishing to receive information.

• A fried egg has ill-defined edges and crowdsourcing has ill-defined access availability.  Depending on how you make a fried egg, the edges might make a nice round space, with the white equally distributed around the yolk.  However, probably not. Like a fried egg, social media-enabled crowdsourcing is likely to be more available to some than to others.  We have discussed the variations of the digital divide in class, and Dr. Dennen has raised our awareness of rural v. urban access.  There are geopolitical divides, as well.  Minority groups may be left out of the crowd being sources. Thus, the potential responders to crowdsourcing can be lop-sided.  Like a fried egg's egg white.

• A fried egg is pretty darn versatile.  Crownsourcing is as well, providing information for organizations from McDonald's to Greenpeace.  "Sentiment analysis" supports government's ability to know the mind of its citizenry, as well as collecting ideas, funds, tasks and data.  

In many ways, crowdsourcing is not not at all like a fried egg. It's not much like one of anything, as it take, literally, a "crowd" of data in order to reap the benefits of "the wisdom of crowds."


A better  comparison might be, if you un-fried the egg, and reconstructed it back into its shell,  Now, consider the evolutionary history of the egg.  A hen's egg is an excellent example of problem-solving, occuring after millenia of evolutionary pressure.

Social-media enabled crowdsourcing allows for the collection of data, analysis of large amounts of data, and resulting new or modified output, in a very very very small amount of time.

Is crowdsourcing like a fried egg?  Not really, don't be silly.  Is it like the forces of evolution?  I believe, much much more.

Sources
Five ways crowdsourcing serves our governments. Citizen lab.  Wiete van Ransbeek, March 24, 2016

9 Great Examples of Crowdsourcing in the Age of Empowered Consumers, Tweek Your Biz, July 10, 2015, updated September 22, 2018.

When crowdsourcing is a bad idea, Simon Thompson, July 9, 2012