Classroom Companion: Business

 
► Example 7.4 RepRap Project
The RepRap project was initiated by the University of Bath, England, for developing 
low-cost 3D printers using various thermoplastic materials. The project now includes 
several hundred participants all over the world developing free 3D printing software and 
hardware design and experimenting with new materials suitable for printing. RepRap 
is an open design project releasing design details via the GNU General Public License. 
This includes free open-source software, design details, and hardware. The goal is to 
develop desktop manufacturing systems affordable and useful for everyone for, among 
others, producing household artifacts.
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Chapter 7 · Production Models

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7.2.3 
 Crowdsourcing
In the crowdsourcing production model, organizations and individuals produce digi-
tal services by inspiring the public to contribute to the project. This seems somewhat 
similar to outsourcing; however, the difference between outsourcing and crowdsourc-
ing is that outsourcing implies that the work is contracted out to another company on 
strict commercial and juridical conditions, whereas crowdsourcing implies that the 
work is done by arbitrary groups of individuals without formalized participation. The 
result of the work may then be more arbitrary but may also lead to better, cheaper, and 
more versatile solutions. Since there may be many participants in the project, it is likely 
that design flaws are discovered at an early stage and that better and cheaper designs 
are found. The crowdsourcing production model is illustrated in 
.
Fig. 
7.3
.
Crowdsourcing is a form of peer production. The difference is that CBPP may 
follow arbitrary development paths sometimes resulting in a viable product, whereas 
a crowdsourcing project aims at developing a predefined product. Crowdsourcing 
may be used in any stage of product development from the initial idea to develop-
ment, production, testing, and marketing. The prerequisite is that the collaboration 
can take place over the Internet. A company may use crowdsourcing at all stages of 
production or only parts of production, leading to a final digital service.
Next follows some examples of crowdsourcing initiatives.