Is Crowdsourcing a Fad or a Foundational Element?
Much has been written about 'crowdsourcing' and the 'wisdom of the crowd' over the past couple of years, including "Crowdsourcing" by Jeff Howe - a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and "Wisdom of the Crowd" by James Surowiecki - a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Crowdsourcing - "The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." - Jeff Howe
'Wisdom of the Crowd' - "Refers to the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question." - Wikipedia
For those of you not familiar with crowdsourcing, here is a good video from Jeff Howe:
So, what will happen to 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' as more and more companies start to employ these techniques.
Will the crowd remain wise or lose its predictive powers?
One thing is certain. Organizations will continue to use 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' together to help them find ideas that will resonate with their targets.
Organizations will, however, have to work harder to market their initiatives as the competition increases for people's time, if they are to maximize the value they accrue from the effort.
What do you think?
@innovate
Crowdsourcing - "The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." - Jeff Howe
'Wisdom of the Crowd' - "Refers to the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question." - Wikipedia
For those of you not familiar with crowdsourcing, here is a good video from Jeff Howe:
So, what will happen to 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' as more and more companies start to employ these techniques.
Will the crowd remain wise or lose its predictive powers?
One thing is certain. Organizations will continue to use 'crowdsourcing' and 'wisdom of the crowd' together to help them find ideas that will resonate with their targets.
Organizations will, however, have to work harder to market their initiatives as the competition increases for people's time, if they are to maximize the value they accrue from the effort.
What do you think?
@innovate
Labels: Braden Kelley, crowdsourcing, Innovation, marketing, Social Innovation, wisdom of the crowd
posted by Blogging Innovation at 10:45 AM
3 Comments:
I agree. Once the novelty has worn off, people will very quickly start to say "why should I tell you what I think?". [My experience at The Economist was that many were already saying that.]
I suspect that a few trusted intermediaries who build a sound relationship with their 'members' will be able to invite and gather opinions, provided people don't feel they're being 'crowdsourced'. For example, I'll sign a petition, write to a newspaper or join a debate (and, in the process, reveal my opinion), but I won't tell you if I think you're just going to sell it.
So it becomes an integral part of Customer Relationship Management.
Braden, I found a fascinating example of crowdsourcing whereby amateur astronomers are advancing the science. They post their photos of the night sky to Flickr & the astronometry.net project analyzes the photos & adds them to the storehouse of knowledge. (I wrote about it at http://workingknowledge.com/blog/?p=116)
I think the takeaway for businesses is to provide a mutual benefit. Providing a good benefit will help companies overcome the problem you mention of how to get people to participate.
"Will the crowd remain wise or lose its predictive powers?"
I think the 'crowd' never had predictive powers. Customers usually don't know what the future will look like, they only know what they want now. We maybe have the impression that some crowdsourcing activities are predictive, but it's only because the offer is behind the demand.
Crowdsourcing is not necessary the best solution to get new ideas.
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