Spotlight on Crowdsourcing

Open source everything

Spotlight on Crowdsourcing

July 06, 2010 - Russell Barnes

First coined back in 2006 by Jeff Howe, you could say ‘Crowdsourcing’ has more than earned the right not to be considered a buzz-word any more.

There’s certainly a wealth of information out there about it, so here's a (hopefully) digestible article showing some of the interesting projects and campaigns that have embraced the masses, and truly harnessed power from the people.

It’s all in the name

To paraphrase Howe’s description, crowdsourcing takes a job traditionally done by a designated person/party and outsources it to an undefined group of people.

It’s not really a new concept in terms of how people get things done (most readers of this blog have likely experienced design-a-poster competitions at school, suggestion boxes, etc), but the advent of the web cast things in a new light, letting people widen their net from just their local connections. To put it mildly.

There go the floodgates

The broad range of web-based tools that enable commenting, contributing and collaborating all helped pave the way for the crowdsourcing model. From the relatively straightforward acts of writing/editing Wikipedia and translating Facebook, through to setting briefs for scientists around the world, crowdsourcing seems to be able to offer a solution to just about any problem.
However, it’s one thing to unplug the fire-hose of collective thought... quite another to get workable results.

Anchor-points

The following notes (sourced/edited from a great Contagious article) provide some crowdsourcing guidelines:

1) Start small

Try a crowdsourcing experiment within your company first, to see if it fits with your organization’s culture. 


2) Manage expectations

The 90:9:1 rule will likely apply - 90% consume, 9% comment, 1% contribute.


3) Motivate your crowd

Use an appropriate mix of the 4 Fs - fame, fortune, fun and fulfillment - to incentivize participation.


4) Separate the wheat from the chaff

It’s likely a lot of what you get may be useless - try to create a system that helps you filter out the good stuff (voting, favorites, etc).


5) Simply does it

If it’s hard to get involved, the crowd will take the easy route out of there.


6) Connections help you get there

Let contributors communicate with each other, as well as with you.


7) Established grounds tend to be fertile grounds

If possible, build on existing communities that focus on what people do (design, write, play) as opposed to what they think.


8) Actively manage

Encourage, feed-back, dedicate time and resources to the process.


9) Watch the small-print

Get your legal team on the case with terms & conditions, so you don’t lose your shirt while trying to design a new one.


10) Promote, promote, promote
 
Spread the word however you can - ads, emails, social media, etc.

Ok, I get it... now gimme some links!

Here’s a selection of interesting examples:

A drop in the ocean

The above information represents just a small selection of what's out there. For anyone wanting to delve deeper, check out the following:

In summary

Harnessing the intelligence of crowds is unlikely to fall from favor any time soon, considering the difficult economic conditions of late and some of the amazing successes the practice has already generated. That said, it’s equally important to ensure you manage the power of crowds, as they aren’t always a force for good - say the word ‘vuvuzela’ to any World Cup fan and you’ll see what I mean ; )

Whether it's for promotions, content creation, idea generation or something else entirely, crowdsourcing has the potential to make a big impact on your business.
Work at Play has the expertise to help you decide whether crowdsourcing could be right for you, and the skills to develop the right platform to make it a success.

Get in touch with us if you're interested to know more.

Image credit - from Flickr (creative commons): James Cridland

On User Engagement, Digital Experience and the Intersection of Marketing & Technology.

Recent blog posts

more