Background:Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production mechanism that leverages the collective intelligence of non-expert individuals and networked communities for specific goals.Social innovation(SI...Background:Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production mechanism that leverages the collective intelligence of non-expert individuals and networked communities for specific goals.Social innovation(SI)initiatives aim to address health challenges in a sustainable manner,with a potential to strengthen health systems.They are developed by actors from different backgrounds and disciplines.This paper describes the application of crowdsourcing as a research method to explore SI initiatives in health.Methods:The study explored crowdsourcing as a method to identify SI initiatives implemented in Africa,Asia and Latin America.While crowdsourcing has been used in high-income country settings,there is limited knowledge on its use,benefits and challenges in low-and middle-income country(LMIC)settings.From 2014 to 2018,six crowdsourcing contests were conducted at global,regional and national levels.Results:A total of 305 eligible projects were identified;of these 38 SI initiatives in health were identified.We describe the process used to perform a crowdsourcing contest for SI,the outcome of the contests,and the challenges and opportunities when using this mechanism in LMICs.Conclusions:We demonstrate that crowdsourcing is a participatory method,that is able to identify bottom-up or grassroots SI initiatives developed by non-traditional actors.展开更多
文摘Background:Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production mechanism that leverages the collective intelligence of non-expert individuals and networked communities for specific goals.Social innovation(SI)initiatives aim to address health challenges in a sustainable manner,with a potential to strengthen health systems.They are developed by actors from different backgrounds and disciplines.This paper describes the application of crowdsourcing as a research method to explore SI initiatives in health.Methods:The study explored crowdsourcing as a method to identify SI initiatives implemented in Africa,Asia and Latin America.While crowdsourcing has been used in high-income country settings,there is limited knowledge on its use,benefits and challenges in low-and middle-income country(LMIC)settings.From 2014 to 2018,six crowdsourcing contests were conducted at global,regional and national levels.Results:A total of 305 eligible projects were identified;of these 38 SI initiatives in health were identified.We describe the process used to perform a crowdsourcing contest for SI,the outcome of the contests,and the challenges and opportunities when using this mechanism in LMICs.Conclusions:We demonstrate that crowdsourcing is a participatory method,that is able to identify bottom-up or grassroots SI initiatives developed by non-traditional actors.
