Crowdsourcing In Action: Waze
With the rise of information and access that came with the internet, crowdsourcing information has become an increasingly popular way to gather knowledge. Waze, a GPS app, crowdsources information on where cops, accidents, and slowdowns could be on your route, as well as local gas prices and road closures. Bought by Google in 2013, Waze has risen in popularity and now boasts over 130 million users.
Waze fulfills many of the recommendations for gathering accurate crowdsourced information. The app is catered towards drivers (rather than bikers/walkers), so everyone who uses and contributes to the app are typically also driver. This makes almost all of Waze’s users “experts” on what other drivers would want to know (although the threshold for this term “expert” is admittedly pretty low). This fulfills Goldman’s epistemic objective of reliability, which is commonly questionable among crowdsourced information.
Drivers have little reason to lie about accidents or cops, but if they do, their provided information is quickly checked by other drivers passing by who also use the app. False information is also pretty inconsequential. If a driver thinks there is a cop or accident ahead on their route, but this information ends up being false, the only consequence would be that the driver might drive more carefully, which is probably a good idea anyway!
Waze also enhances their app by using big data. Like other GPS applications, Waze tracks all their users’ location and speed to find the best route for their users. As traffic information accumulates, the fastest routes get further optimized. The app also collects user data to more accurately give arrival time information, since different drivers drive at different speeds.
By using both crowdsourced information and big data, Waze in theory creates a superior GPS app. But do people actually feel that it is superior?
In a not-official-at-all poll I made on the Facebook group NEU Polls, I asked which GPS apps people normally used. The three main apps people use are: Google Maps, with 460 users; Apple Maps, with 174 users; and Waze, with 98 users (numbers as of Nov 7, 2020). Although Waze was the least popular GPS application, its users seemed to be the most passionate, mostly because of the crowdsourced aspect of the app:
“The one day I drove home from the Cape without Waze I got pulled over by a cop so now I use it everywhere I go”
“I drive at least 400 miles a day for work, and Waze/google maps is above and beyond”
“Waze tells me where the cops are.”
There were also some negative comments about Waze, mostly to do with the app’s technical issues:
“Waze is laggy, has annoying ads, and crashes sometimes. But hey, it is the most reliable for telling you where the road pirates are so I live and die by Waze.”
It’s also worth noting that the results are also skewed by the fact that Waze only really works for drivers, but most Boston college students walk or bike and therefore wouldn’t use Waze. Apple Maps and Google Maps also come as default GPS options on phones, so that could also account for the lower usage of Waze.
Overall, it seems like crowdsourcing is a powerful tool to share information with others. In high stakes situations that require experts, crowdsourcing information from amateurs may not always be the best option. But in gathering information for everyday life, like choosing your commute route, crowdsourcing is an effective way to help yourself and help others obtain knowledge.
