Enabling Physical Crowdsourcing On-the-Go with Context-Sensitive Notifications

Abstract

This paper introduces the idea of sending timely notifications to potential helpers to complete small tasks on-the-go with minimal effort to them and maximal benefit to the system. We present two on-the-go crowdsourcing systems: Libero for package delivery, and CrowdFound for finding lost items. To encourage contributions, we introduce notification techniques that present task opportunities when potential helpers are likely to accept. To direct people to regions where help is most needed, we introduce techniques for tracking a person’s location within a task region and directing their attention based on task history. Evaluation studies demonstrate the feasibility of on-the-go crowdsourcing and investigate questions over the likelihood of task completion, the perceived cost of disruption, and the effectiveness of tracking and coordination.