‘Crowdsourcing’ is a relatively recent concept that encompasses many practices. This diversity leads to the blurring of the limits of crowdsourcing that may be identified virtually with any type of internet-based collaborative activity, such as co-creation or user innovation. Varying definitions of crowdsourcing exist, and therefore some authors present certain specific examples of crowdsourcing as paradigmatic, while others present the same examples as the opposite. In this article, existing definitions of crowdsourcing are analysed to extract common elements and to establish the basic characteristics of any crowdsourcing initiative. Based on these existing definitions, an exhaustive and consistent definition for crowdsourcing is presented and contrasted in 11 cases.

Crowdsourcing is a problem-solving and task realization model that is being increasingly used. Thanks to the possibility of harnessing the collective intelligence from the Internet; thanks to the crowdsourcing initiatives people can, for example, find a solution to a complex chemical problem, get images tagged, or get a logo designed. Due to its success and usefulness, more and more researchers have focused their interest on this concept. This fact has shown that the concept of crowdsourcing has no clear boundaries, and although over time the concept has been better explained, some authors describe it differently, propose different types of crowdsourcing initiatives, or even use contradictory crowdsourcing examples. In this paper, an integrated definition and typology, developed in 2012, are analyzed to check whether they are still valid today or whether need a reformulation.

Neighbours sharing information about robberies in their district through social networking platforms, citizens and volunteers posting about the irregularities of political elections on the Internet, and internauts trying to identify a suspect of a crime: in all these situations, people who share different degrees of relationship collaborate through the Internet and other technologies to try to help with or solve an offence. The crowd, which is sometimes seen as a threat, in these cases becomes an invaluable resource that can complement law enforcement through collective intelligence. Owing to the increasing growth of such initiatives, this article conducts a systematic review of the literature to identify the elements that characterize them and to find the conditions that make them work successfully.

Enrique Estellés-Arolas es licenciado con premio extraordinario en ingeniería informática (2007), e investiga el fenómeno del crowdsourcing en el Departamento de Organización de Empresas de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Otras áreas de su interés son las nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a la educación, las herramientas colaborativas web 2.0 y el uso de las etiquetas para marcar recursos. ResumenLas iniciativas de crowdsourcing planteadas por organizaciones de ámbitos diversos como la música, el diseño o la catalogación son cada vez más frecuentes. A pesar de este auge, la ausencia de un fundamento teórico consistente genera problemas como la existencia de tipos o clasificaciones de crowdsourcing que se superponen y entremezclan o la ausencia de una definición compartida. A partir de una revisión sistemática de la bibliografía se analizan las tipologías considerando la naturaleza de las tareas que debe realizar la 'multitud' como criterio, y se propone una nueva tipología integradora. Palabras claveCrowdsourcing, Tipología, Clasificación, Multitud, Tarea. Title: Tasks-based classification of crowdsourcing initiatives AbstractCrowdsourcing initiatives by organizations working in areas like music, design or cataloguing are becoming more frequent. Nonetheless, the absence of a consistent theoretical background creates problems, such as the existence of diverse crowdsourcing classifications that overlap and interweave, or the lack of a common definition. This paper analyses different typologies considering the nature of the tasks to be performed by the crowd as the main criterion and proposes a new integrative typology.

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<p>Collective Intelligence on the Internet, managed through crowdsourcing, has allowed Internet users to put their eyes, ears, and minds at the service of professional security forces. The general objective is to support the security actions that these agencies carry out to ensure a safer society. Given the relevance of this topic, this paper studies through a systematic literature review how Collective Intelligence is being used as a support tool for the formal social control exercised by both states’ security forces and professional corporations. Using a morphological approach, the paper also structures the eight basic general crowdsourcing elements (crowd, crowdsourcer, task, technology, crowd reward, crowdsourcer reward, participatory process, and open call) into a conceptual framework to present an integrated overview of the design options of the formal social control crowdsourcing initiatives studied. This analysis also allows to identify different relevant interdependencies between design elements. </p>

Open education brings new opportunities for exploring new online learning models and innovative practices in teaching and learning. The landscape of education is changing thanks to the introduction of massive open online courses, also known as MOOCs. A type of this new phenomenon is cMOOC, in which students acquire a fully significant role in the process of formation and in which interaction is a key learning element. This kind MOOCs will be analysed in this paper.

<p>Collective Intelligence on the Internet, managed through crowdsourcing, has allowed Internet users to put their eyes, ears, and minds at the service of professional security forces. The general objective is to support the security actions that these agencies carry out to ensure a safer society. Given the relevance of this topic, this paper studies through a systematic literature review how Collective Intelligence is being used as a support tool for the formal social control exercised by both states’ security forces and professional corporations. Using a morphological approach, the paper also structures the eight basic general crowdsourcing elements (crowd, crowdsourcer, task, technology, crowd reward, crowdsourcer reward, participatory process, and open call) into a conceptual framework to present an integrated overview of the design options of the formal social control crowdsourcing initiatives studied. This analysis also allows to identify different relevant interdependencies between design elements. </p>