Towards an open product repository using playful crowdsourcing

Abstract

Despite the ubiquity of barcodes there is no common product repository available today linking product master data to the corresponding barcodes. This paper proposes a social network game (Product Empire) that motivates users to scan barcodes and to enter basic product information, such as product name, brand and category and to upload a picture. A first prototype has been implemented and applied in an initial formative user study with 10 users who have generated 80 product scans with user-generated descriptions in a week time frame. This result shows the potential of generating an open product repository by motivating users with a game approach.