How can knowledge integration in crowdsourcing help to tackle grand challenges?

An exploratory case study of tackling food waste

Abstract

Global challenges such as reducing food waste have shown to
be hard to overcome due to complex networks of actors. This
study aims to explore whether crowdsourcing can be a new
tool to help address these extremely complex ‘grand
challenges’ with knowledge integration of the crowds. To do
so, a pilot case study is conducted on the food waste problem
on existing crowdsourcing initiative OpenIDEO, to explore
how observed dynamics can reflect Robust Action strategies
to tackle these grand challenges. Results offer evidence for
crowdsourcing as a useful tool as well as two key
development points.