Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the
Crowd is Driving the Future of Business
Crown Business ©2008, 320 pages, $26.95
(ISBN 978-0-307-39620-4)
They say that none of us is as smart as
all of us. The burgeoning online community, in which users align themselves around similar interests, vet ideas
and products, and market themselves,
makes all of us a far larger, smarter and
more accessible community than ever
before. This development has tremendous
implications for fostering unprecedented
levels of collaboration and
meaningful exchanges
between people who share
similar interests in every corner of the globe.
Consider Threadless.com,
an online T-shirt design competition in which people submit designs and users vote
on which one is best.
Winners receive free T-shirts
bearing the winning designs,
and anybody can buy shirts
that cost $5 to produce but
sell for $12 to $25.
Threadless is but one example. Others include iStockphoto, an
online community of amateur photographers, and InnoCentive. The latter, an
online community of more than 140,000
scientists from more than 170 countries,
routinely puts its collective brain trust
to work for clients such as Procter &
Gamble and BASF.
The common thread?
“They are part of the first wave of a business and cultural revolution that will
change how we think about the Internet,
commerce and, most importantly, ourselves,” writes Jeff Howe, contributing editor at Wired, in his exuberant treatise,
“Crowdsourcing.” “Over the past several
years, people from around the world have
begun exhibiting an almost totally
unprecedented social behavior: They are
coming together to perform tasks, usually
for little or no money, that were once the
sole province of employees.”
Understanding the phenomenon
Howe’s cogent analysis leads readers to
the conclusion that our educational and
professional structures have ushered in an
era of far too much specialization. Fewer
people are finding professional fulfillment in the field of their study, creating a huge
pent-up demand for people seeking their
most meaningful and rewarding contributions to come from outside their jobs.
“Crowdsourcing” operates
under the most optimistic of
assumptions: that each one of
us possesses a far broader,
more complex range of talents
than we can currently express
within our current economic,
educational or professional
straightjacket.
This behavior may appear
illogical when viewed through
the lens of conventional economics, but crowdsourcing
taps the vein of intrinsic
rewards. It cultivates a robust
and active community composed of people with a deep and ongoing commitment to their craft and, even more
importantly, to one another. Because
crowdsourcing eschews traditional
forms of compensation, a social environment gives creative production a context
in which the labor itself has meaning.
But crowdsourcing offers no free
lunch: Communities can be difficult to
build and even harder to maintain. The
task requires managers to think in ways
that run counter to decades of standard
business protocol. In lieu of a regular
paycheck, people will want a sense of
ownership over their contributions.
Members also develop proprietary feelings over the company itself. This
means opening up the decision-making
process to them in a highly competitive
environment.
Furthermore, the online community
notoriously bucks any efforts to manipulate it. Contributors won’t tolerate
anything less than full disclosure and
total transparency. Honesty breeds
trust, but any sense that they’re being
used or exploited will drive them to
another site, most likely one run by a
competitor.
Required Reading
More info on the all-for-one world
of Web 2.0
“Wikinomics” by Don Tapscott and
Anthony D. Williams | Using the collaborative-software “wiki” concept as their
theme, the authors address how the
Internet’s social network offers new,
decentralized ways to produce content,
goods, services and profit. Tapscott and
Williams give a thorough review of current technology and offer insight that is
more than just a pile of statistics.
Portfolio, 320 pages
“Citizen Marketers” by Ben McConnell
and Jackie Huba | “Citizen marketers” are
forming growing communities of enthusiasts and evangelists, getting the word out
about what products they love or hate.
This book is a good primer for leaders
looking to learn about the positive side of
an audience-led marketing effort.
However, McConnell and Huba don’t shy
away from the fact that an open communication channel does occasionally lead
to negative messages finding their way to
the public. Kaplan Business, 224 pages
“Outside Innovation” by Patricia B.
Seybold | Innovation is what keeps companies at the top of their fields, and
Seybold shows that the best way for companies to do this is to involve passionate
customers in every aspect of their product and service design. Readers will find
Seybold’s case studies easy to understand, and she provides a clear picture of
what is involved in developing this key
business practice. Despite seeming like a
daunting task, readers will find allowing
customers into the inner sanctum of product development has its benefits. The
speed of business has only increased,
and it’s important to have as many vocal
supporters as possible to push a company along. Collins, 432 pages
