Tech Mahindra Launches Populii, A Global Crowdsourcing Platform for Gig Workers

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering solutions, today announced the launch of Populii, a crowdsourcing platform that enables gig workers to collaborate with leading organisations through micro jobs requiring human-in-the-loop services. The platform will create flexible work opportunities for the gig workforce while equipping businesses with reliable data from trained and qualified candidates to build competitive AI algorithms.

Populii will create extensive opportunities for gig job seekers around data management, microtasks, and user studies with industry-leading enterprises. Gig jobs on Populii will include content rating, data collection, data transcription, and data annotation of multiple data types. It will also support enterprises in creating production-grade machine-learning models with the help of a qualified workforce and flexible crowd delivery models, enabling businesses to access a pool of skilled talent for a quick ramp-up.

Populii will operate with three customer-centric principles – Advise, Annotate, and Acquire, which will help enterprises scan seamlessly and accelerate product development:

• Advise from Tech Mahindra experts with extensive domain knowledge and specialised skills across industry verticals
• Annotation will be quicker because of the ability to leverage Tech Mahindra’s proven training models that offer high-quality machine-learning datasets
• Acquisition of multiple data types such as image, text, video, and speech in over 80+ languages

Birendra Sen, Business Head, Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra, said, “Building competitive next-gen Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions requires substantial time and tapping into talent beyond traditional workplaces. Populii, Tech Mahindra’s crowdsourcing platform, connects enterprises with skilled gig workers globally, helping enterprises accelerate AI solution creation while reducing costs and boosting productivity. Gig workers get access to top AI projects and flexible earning opportunities.We believe Populii will become the go-to platform for both gig workers and enterprises, fueling innovation and fostering AI success.”

For job seekers, Populii will serve as the best-in-class community to find gig jobs that fit their schedule, enable upskilling, and ensure on-time payments. On the other hand, for enterprises, the platform will provide rich and accurate data that aligns with their business objectives. Populii is built on the foundation of DataMime, which Tech Mahindra acquired in 2020; the solution offers customizable workflows to cater to customer-specific requirements on a multitenant secured architecture.

Populii’s development is aligned with Tech Mahindra’s NXT.NOW™ framework, which aims to enhance the ‘Human Centric Experience’, with a focus on investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enable digital transformation and meet the evolving needs of the customer.

Machine Learning and Crowdsourced Intelligence: Hand-in-Hand Solutions

In today's digital age, the power of machine learning and the collective intelligence of crowds have emerged as two prominent forces shaping the future of problem-solving and decision-making. While machine learning algorithms have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in analyzing vast amounts of data and extracting valuable insights, crowdsourced intelligence harnesses the wisdom of diverse individuals to tackle complex challenges. Combining the strengths of both approaches, machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence can provide hand-in-hand solutions that propel innovation and drive progress across various domains.

Machine Learning and Limitations

Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, enables computers to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed. Through the use of sophisticated algorithms, machine learning systems can identify patterns, detect anomalies, and generate valuable insights from complex datasets. This technology has found applications in diverse fields such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and marketing, revolutionizing the way organizations operate and make informed decisions.

However, despite its impressive capabilities, machine learning is not immune to limitations. One significant challenge lies in the availability of high-quality training data. Machine learning models heavily rely on data to generalize patterns and make accurate predictions. Insufficient or biased data can lead to flawed outcomes and reinforce existing biases. This is where crowdsourced intelligence can play a crucial role.

Crowdsourcing Approach

Crowdsourced intelligence involves leveraging the collective knowledge, opinions, and efforts of a large group of people to solve problems or make decisions. It taps into the diverse perspectives and expertise of individuals from different backgrounds, enabling a comprehensive understanding of complex issues. With the rise of online platforms and social networks, crowdsourcing has become increasingly accessible, allowing organizations to engage a vast pool of contributors from around the world.

By integrating crowdsourced intelligence into machine learning workflows, organizations can address the limitations of training data and enhance the accuracy and robustness of their models. Crowdsourcing can help in various stages of the machine learning process, such as data labeling, feature engineering, and model evaluation. For instance, when training a machine learning model to recognize images, crowdsourcing can be employed to annotate and label vast datasets, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives and reducing biases. Similarly, crowdsourced feedback and evaluations can provide valuable insights into model performance and help identify areas for improvement.

Moreover, the combination of machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence fosters a cycle of continuous improvement. As machine learning algorithms make predictions and decisions, feedback from users and contributors can be collected and integrated back into the system. This feedback loop enables the models to adapt and evolve, becoming more accurate and effective over time. With crowdsourced intelligence, organizations can tap into the collective intelligence of the crowd to continuously refine their machine-learning solutions, driving innovation and staying ahead in a rapidly changing landscape.

Besides, merely allowing users to share a resource of their device gives a helping hand in further machine learning. For example, sharing internet traffic via Honeygain provides a helping hand towards data gathering that can be used for machine learning activities. In turn for this, users are able to get passive earnings, creating a double-ended approach that benefits everyone. Users get 3 credits for 10 MB of traffic shared passively, and 1000 credits are worth $1. Once the user accumulates at least $20 worth of credits, they can request a payout. Crowdsourced internet resources (and fair payment for it) help in data collection with incentives for the user to participate.

Successful Combination

The synergy between machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence has led to numerous successful applications across various domains. In the field of healthcare, researchers have employed machine learning algorithms to analyze medical images and detect diseases, while crowdsourced intelligence has been utilized to validate and enhance the accuracy of these models. In the business realm, companies have leveraged machine learning to improve customer segmentation, and crowdsourcing has provided valuable feedback and domain expertise to optimize marketing strategies.

However, it is crucial to acknowledge the challenges associated with this integration. Ensuring the quality and reliability of crowdsourced contributions, addressing issues of privacy and security, and managing the scalability of the crowdsourcing process are among the key considerations. Organizations must implement robust mechanisms to verify the accuracy and consistency of crowd-contributed data and establish clear guidelines and incentives to encourage meaningful participation.

In conclusion, machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence are two powerful approaches that, when combined, offer hand-in-hand solutions to complex problems. By leveraging the strengths of both methodologies, organizations can overcome the limitations of machine learning, enhance the accuracy and robustness of models, and tap into the collective intelligence of diverse individuals. As we move forward into a future driven by data and innovation, the synergy between machine learning and crowdsourced intelligence will continue to shape industries, drive progress, and unlock new possibilities.

AI Based Crowd-Sourcing Platform 'My Mobiforce' Raises $200K in Angel Funding

Noida based Crowd-sourcing Platform My Mobiforce providing on-demand Field Services raised US$ 200K from a US-based angel investor Mr Arpan Prakash and Mr Sanjiv Mital who is also an Advisor, Mentor and a Seasoned Angel Investor.

My Mobiforce is trying to solve one the biggest challenges of the brands and companies to implement on-demand Field Services by providing them with a technology platform to find a qualified field talent at the right time at the right place.

With the advancements in the space of IOT, Field Service industry is moving towards proactive & predictive service management. A huge amount of field service calls will be generated through the billions of connected devices thereby, preparing brands to handle this dynamic flow of service calls. Crowd-sourcing is emerging to be the best fit solution.

My MobiForce aims to create an extensive network of qualified Field technicians for brands to grow and expand their business without worrying much about Service Operations, hence, generating jobs for our Service Partners. The industry is moving from in-housing to out-sourcing to crowd-sourcing which is the need of the hour by sharing of resources and shifting the complete service operations cost model from Capex to Opex.

“With the funds coming in, the fund raised will be utilised for aggregation of a strong talent pool to serve brands looking for services around Connectivity & Connected devices. We plan to grow our sales team to add more enterprises and SMB clients to increase the service transactions number from 15,000 to 45,000 per month in the next 6 months. Strong focus is towards building a Technology around AI based Pricing Insight Engine, which can help the clients to pay the right price for the desired services”, says, Dheeraj Khatter, Co-Founder My Mobiforce.

With our current operations in 10 cities with 2000+ freelancers and 1000+ Partners, My Mobiforce is serving Clients like HCL, Hughes, Tata Nelco, QTek Systems, Airtel, Voltas, Intex, Lloyd, POS Solutions, Xtreme Media, Firstouch and many more.

"Every service-oriented organisation have been using freelancers and Contractors in a very unorganised fashion and a lot of these technicians don’t even have a profile. My Mobiforce is trying to give a name and a face to all these skilled workforces by creating their profile, training them and giving brands the right technology platform to connect with these people in an organised manner", adds Mr Himanshu Kumar, Co-Founder My Mobiforce.

My Mobiforce Platform aims to make the Crowd-sourcing feasible for the Brands by integrating with their existing CRM like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamic etc. to leverage workforce on Cloud. SMBs & OEMs can use the cloud-based platform to configure CRM, projects, service Incidents with a bid price and can leverage AI based matchmaking which connects them with the right available talent within a few minutes.

Brands can set Auto Rules to select the right technicians and with the prominent features like reverse bidding, Mobility, real-time tracking, Proof of Service Delivery and auto alerts, customers can track the task from creation to Closure. The platform also takes care of payment settlement with contractors and freelancers which was a big hassle for brands.

[Top Image - MyMobiForce@Facebook]

The Two Essentials For Crowdsourcing Success Revealed

Companies must give both proactive and reactive attention to contributors to make crowdsourcing successful, new research from ESMT Berlin reveals, despite the advice being against natural inclinations.

Professor Linus Dahlander studied the crowdsourcing efforts of over 20,000 companies.

He revealed that whether organisations succeed or fail in crowdsourcing can be explained by two actions they take, these are –

1. Provide proactive attention – give to get

Instead of waiting for ideas to be submitted, organisations post ideas themselves and invite people to discuss them. This proactive attention shows the types of ideas that organisations are interested in, engenders trust by providing a glimpse into potential future innovation, and empowers external contributors to evaluate the company’s ideas.

Proactive attention establishes a reciprocal communication style and drives knowledge sharing. Contributors are more motivated to submit their own ideas. This is critical as no contributor wants to be the first to submit a suggestion.

2. Provide reactive attention – show you care

Organisations that respond publicly to suggestions receive many more ideas from external contributors. This validates external contributors, motivating further contributions, and indicates what types of suggestions the organisation values.

Attending to newcomers in particular yields impressive outcomes. If they learn that the organisation cares, they make use of their fresh perspective and share numerous ideas.

“Managers who pursue these actions can increase the odds of success substantially,” says Professor Dahlander. “They seem straightforward, but companies need to fight their natural tendencies to wait to receive ideas before sharing their own and to focus on established contributors when they should focus on news ones instead.

"Organisations must pay attention to the crowd before the crowd will submit ideas."

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Passbrains enabling on-demand, real world 'Crowdtesting' of apps

Passbrains is the on-demand crowd testing division of Pass Technologies. With their headquarters in Zurich- Switzerland, the company is Europe's leading on-demand software testing services. They have been delivering testing services to global clients including fortune 500 firms across different industry sectors.

Mayank Mittal, director & country Head of Pass Technologies- India says, "Passbrains hosts global tester community and comprises comprehensive toolkit to deliver full spectrum of on-demand professional testing services for web, mobile, cloud and enterprise applications across industry domains." They have a 25,000+ strong testing community spread across more than 100 countries and have recently opened up an office in Bangalore.

There are more and more apps to be developed for a growing number of devices, OS versions and languages. Software quality is crucial to any business success and it's important to make sure that users will love the end product. In the current scenario, software testing is time consuming and is still below expectation. Lack of test resources and the changing nature of software landscape has brought about a shift from traditional testing methods to a more dynamic way of testing called Crowdtesting.

Passbrains.com has the perfect solution for faster, efficient and credible testing and is a leading crowdsourcing platform for on demand managed application testing services. It consists of thousands of highly skilled software testers and thousands of consumers ready to test an app within the time you need it. Testers will test the app in a number of devices, languages and operating systems the app needs to function in. Testers report lots of bug report in the apps and suggest improvements for the usability. The reports are then reviewed by quality engineers at Pass Brains as soon as they come in.

We asked Mayank what prompted them to extend operations in India, he said "Software industry is evolving at a fast pace with increasing customer expectations and growing competition. Delivering premium quality software applications at market speed has become a priority. This has brought about a shift from traditional testing methods to a more dynamic way of testing called the managed crowd testing."

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_MhlbdODXQ]

Passbrains platform can be used in self-service mode or to license a white labeled version allowing users to run test projects using their internal staff exclusively or in combination with Passbrains' tester community. They have set up two delivery centers in Mumbai and Bangalore within a year of starting operations. “India's growing prominence in the crowdsourcing testing community can also be seen from the fact that around 10-15 percent of our crowdsourced testing community hail from India,” he added.

The approach is based on an Integrated Delivery Model with a combination of internal teams and professional crowd testers. The in-house team comprises mainly of project managers, test managers, domain experts and technical consultants. This team handles consulting, project management and reviewing of all deliverables submitted by the Passbrains community. The tester community at Passbrains has a large mix of testers ranging from novice testers to seasoned professionals with more than 20 years of experience.

“For every project, the testers from our community are chosen on the basis of a comprehensive selection process covering various metrics, such as testers’ skills, testing and specific domain experience, demographics, performance and many other factors to ensure optimal test coverage, quality and overall performance,” said Mayank.

Their model is very attractive to small and medium scale enterprises that expect high quality professional testing services at competitive price points. They operate on a hybrid model which is a mix of on-shore, offshore and crowdsouced testing. To identify which project or applications are viable candidates for this constellation, they also offer free 'CrowdConsult' services to their customers.

Amplifyd is New Type Of Social Activism - Crowdsourced Lobbying

Amplifyd is a crowdsourced lobbying platform, giving people the opportunity to amplify their voices on political issues within their communities. Support a causes in you community and in return get a personal representative that will call and lobby people's elected officials on their behalf.

The new website is soon to go live to the public.

Each campaign is managed by non-profits fighting for important causes, giving these organizations an additional way to mobilize their communities and generate active and passive incomes.

And, anyone can sign up to become a crowdsourced caller, getting paid to lobby elected officials for others. This is especially great for college students, post-grads, activists, hourly or part-time employees needing an additional source of income and avid travelers, since people can make calls through Amplifyd platform from anywhere.

One can support a cause in your community with upcoming site Amplifyd.com website and someone will call and lobby your politicians on your behalf. Or become a lobbyist yourself and get paid to call politicians for others. Claimed by website anyone could be making up to $30/hr working from home or anywhere in the world.

Using Amplifyd you can start a campaign, support a cause or become a caller. Anyone can become a caller and earn money working from home, or anywhere in the world, calling local and national politicians on the issues that you're most passionate about. You'll be guided with a dynamic script and will be given great tools and tips to help you become a voice of thunder. All you need is a browser and an internet connection, we'll handle the rest.