Jigsaw Data Corporation's crowd-sourced approach to collecting and maintaining

business contact data relied on its user community to contribute, update, and
verify information. This model had several key components:

Contribution: Users could create a free account on Jigsaw's platform by

contributing their own business contact information. They could also add new
contacts to the database and gain points, which could be used to access other
contacts' information.

Verification: Jigsaw encouraged users to verify the accuracy of contact information

in the database by rewarding them with points for each correction made. This
created an incentive for users to keep the data up-to-date and accurate.

Points system: Jigsaw's points system played a crucial role in its crowd-sourced
model. Users could earn points by contributing new contacts, verifying existing
contacts, or referring new users to the platform. These points could then be used
to access contact information without having to contribute their own.

Data exchange: Jigsaw allowed users to exchange their points for contact
information. Users who didn't want to contribute their own data could purchase
points, while those who contributed regularly could access the database for free by
using their earned points.

Data quality: To ensure data quality, Jigsaw implemented a rating system for users
based on their contributions and accuracy. Users with higher ratings were
considered more reliable, which motivated users to contribute accurate and up-to-
date information.

Several other companies have used crowd-sourcing techniques in different

industries, although not necessarily in the same way as Jigsaw:

Waze: Waze is a popular GPS navigation app that uses crowd-sourced data from its
users to provide real-time traffic information, road conditions, and other driving-
related updates.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that relies on its user

community to create, edit, and maintain its content. It has become one of the
largest and most comprehensive sources of information on the internet.

OpenStreetMap: OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project that allows users to create

and edit map data. It relies on a global community of contributors to maintain
accurate and up-to-date mapping information.

Mechanical Turk: Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for human intelligence

tasks (HITs), which allows users to complete small tasks in exchange for payment.
It relies on the crowd to complete tasks that are challenging for machines but
simple for humans.

Kaggle: Kaggle is a platform for data scientists and machine learning practitioners
to participate in competitions, collaborate on projects, and learn from each other.
It uses crowd-sourcing to find innovative solutions to complex data problems.

These examples illustrate how crowd-sourcing has been used across various
industries to harness the collective knowledge and effort of large communities,
resulting in innovative products and services.