Contributor: Tech Mistress is not a so young ‘eccentric’, tech loving lady. She likes to share information in funny and witty ways, to inform but yet motivate. You can follow her on twitter – @AbiikeBlogger, and check out her blog – Mumuocrats.
We once focused on Crowdsourcing on this blog. Remember Crowdsourcing 101? Well, here is a quick recap of what crowdsourcing is. Crowdsourcing simply means sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people, community or a crowd through an open call.
This Crowdsourcing 201, and the focus is on Crowdfunding. What is all about? Crowdsourcing is financial contributions from online investors, sponsors or donors to fund for-profit or non-profit initiatives or enterprises. It is an approach to raising capital for new projects and businesses by soliciting contributions from a large number of stakeholders following three types of crowdfunding models:
- Donations, Philanthropy and Sponsorship where there is no expected financial return.
- Lending.
- Investment in exchange for equity, profit or revenue sharing.
The #SaveOke campaign is a good example of the first crowdsourcing model. The goal was to raise five million naira (N5,000,000) to save Ighiwoto Okeghene John. Who is he? A young Nigerian who nearly lost his life to diabetes. He had no money but he had human angels who sought out to use social media to create awareness and raise funds for him.
The rising power of social media in Africa’s most populous country was revealed as not being only useful for political purposes with #OccupyNigeria which helped fuel the subsidy debate early this year but as a life saving tool for Oke. Social Media influencers – bloggers and tweeters, like Japhet Omojuwa , Linda Ikeji, Kathleen Ndongomo, Chioma Chuka, Co-Creation Hub and others led the crowdfunding campaign. The goal was achieved, Oke was flown to India for further treatment.
Crowdfunding has provided many tech firms with cash injections before a single product is shipped and validated. And hopefully, this model can be replicated here in Nigeria basically because a key problem in the birthing startups is the ability to raise funds.
Can crowdsourcing work without being hinged to a human soul? Only time will tell.
