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Crowdsourcing. What is it?. Image credit: Alexander Kesselaar. “ Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call ” (Wikipedia ).
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What is it? • Image credit: Alexander Kesselaar
“Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call” (Wikipedia).
Its not a new idea… The 19th century Oxford English Dictionary was crowdsourced.
In 1714 the Longitude prize was awarded for the simplest solution for determining a ships longitude.
Now the crowd: Is larger Is more connected Offers more levels of skill for contributions
The Internet: Provides a global distribution channel Allows for fasterpublishing Means ideas are now regulated by value
Organisations can gaininsight into their customers’ needs and desires and buildproducts and services that meetthem.
Commercially clients can: Pay once-off for numerous solutions Pay only for solutions they use Not limit themselves to ‘traditional’ solutions • Image Credit: Creative commons, AMagill
Non-commercially the crowd can create a poolofinfo and ensure it is accurate.
Early adapters of crowdsourcing: Threadless (www.threadless.com) iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com) InnoCentive (www.innocentive.com)
An idea that took tenminutes to come up with may be as good or better than one that took ten hours to develop.
Fourtypes of crowdsourcing: Invention Creation Organisation Prediction
Invention – sourcing ideas for new or existing product development. e.g. My Starbucks Idea (www.mystarbucksidea.com)
Creation – new content created, owned and maintained by a community on an existing platform. e.g. Idea Bounty (www.ideabounty.com).
Organisation – Create new content by organising already existing content. e.g. Digg (www.digg.com)
Prediction – predict trends by asking the community to submit ideas and vote. e.g. Yahoo! Buzz (www.yahoo.com/buzz)
To developproducts For newbusiness and initiatives To communicateideas Prediction and forecasting
Centrally located: A guidingforce is used to channel ideas and formalise the process.
Community controlled: The community controls the process and the outcome.
The most important asset in crowdsourcing Aim to understand why they exist and what motivates people to participate
It is vital to understand and address community needs: How should it be managed? What rewards should be put in place?
Consumer involvement Fresh input Opportunities and connections that did not exist before Problems can be explored quickly at low cost
Only pay for what is used Tap into a range of talent outside internal resources Gain valuable insight into the desires of their customers
Lack of agency guidance or strategic direction Little control over production value For spec work the risk/reward ratio is high Ethics and opinions could be questionable, leading to incorrect assumptions of reliability
IP of work is often disregarded with no written contracts etc. Added costs may be needed to bring a project to a conclusion Lack of financial motivation or reward may lead to lower work quality Difficulties may arise in maintaining a working relationship with the community
Marketing and branding are nolonger owned and managed by one agency.
Through crowdsourcing, amateurs can now communicate ideas to global brands. This generatesPR and direct interaction with a consumer base. Image credit: ming888
But a marketing agency will still be needed for brand strategy development.
Proper planning is essential! Remunerate communities adequately to avoid a negative PR backlash Use crowdsourcing to tap into the collective knowledge of more than one billion people
Further Reading? www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook