People Powered Buzzword Du Jour: Crowdsourcing

from the amateur-to-amateur-to-professional dept

Thu, May 25th 2006 11:47am — Mike Masnick

Over the last few years, as people have recognized the power of the internet as a communications platform rather than a broadcasting platform, different people have come up with different ideas to express the new business models this allows. This has ranged from the joke that Web 2.0 is made of people to the more scholarly work of Greg Lastowka and Dan Hunter about how "amateur to amateur" changes the way we think about content creation, promotion and consumption. It looks like Wired Magazine is now taking a stab at naming the phenomenon as well, describing the concept of "crowdsourcing." Basically it's not that different than the digital working class concept we discussed last week, but with a catchy name. While jumping on the buzzword bandwagon doesn't always make sense, there are important ideas to consider across all of these discussions. It's the basic recognition of how the internet has enabled new forms of production that simply weren't possible before. It then raises two issues: how does that challenge existing ways of doing business and what types of companies spring up to take advantage of the new possibilities. We've seen plenty of examples recently of how, especially within the entertainment industry, the traditional business has dealt with these concepts by fighting the inevitable trends. However, it's encouraging to see one of the examples in the Wired story is a program set up by Eli Lilly to encourage anyone to help companies tackle problems they're having, in exchange for a reward. It's a case where companies are recognizing that sometimes a fresh perspective is quite valuable, rather than assuming that they need to somehow protect their traditional way of doing business. Unfortunately, as with many buzzwords, expect to start seeing lots of new business models that talk up how they're leveraging "crowdsourcing" when the truth will be that very few are actually doing so.

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22 Comments

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Haywood Jablowme, 25 May 2006 @ 12:08pm

HA
First!!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2006 @ 12:11pm

Re: HA
get a goddamn life
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Jezsik, 25 May 2006 @ 12:17pm

Crowdsourcing?
Now there's a lame buzzword. When I think of a crowd, I think of people physically gathered together ... they don't do that on the net. Now, NETSOURCING, that's what the wired story is about. Cast your net in the World Wide Web and you can pick up all sorts lot of stuff (and some of it quite good!).
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Adam, 25 May 2006 @ 12:28pm

For shame...
Why do we use the words some clown shoe executive came up with? /sigh
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Wolfger, 25 May 2006 @ 12:31pm

Crowdsourcing!
Jezsik defined crowd a little too narrowly. A crowd is "people gathered together". Needlessly adding the word "physically" in there is just so much futile attachment to the 20th century.
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anonymous crowdsourcer, 25 May 2006 @ 12:36pm

SIXTH!!!

YES!!!

SOMEONE SEND ME MONEY
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Bark Muckman, 25 May 2006 @ 12:42pm

Businesses should value their customers more!
Sites such as Respect Thy Customer are empowering internet users to speak up and be heard regarding how businesses are treating them. Businesses that do not listen to consumers are surely doomed to the same fate as the DoDo bird. In an age where ANYONE can make their viewpoint international in a matter of seconds, the clattering of those voices shall drive businesses to be more focussed on what Customers Really Want!
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anonymous coward, 25 May 2006 @ 12:48pm

the guy that came up with crowdsourcing is probably an MBA student that skateboards to work, has a pierced tongue, and has never actually worked or managed a real company in his short pointless life. sorry, i'll stick to real words to describe real business problems.
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Buzzword Bill, 25 May 2006 @ 1:01pm

Buzztronic CorpSpeak
I believe that by leveraging existing synergies we can work these top
of mind items into a fully baked chinese menu. Results should provide
the much needed green field for our new uber-widget-x
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Michael Long, 25 May 2006 @ 1:07pm

Encouraging?
Encouraging? Maybe. Then again, it looks to me to be yet another step in the commoditization of labor, allowing companies to lay off staff and further "outsource" those jobs for mere pennies to the dollar.

"Sorry Bob, but a kid in Acron volunteered to do that entire project for $20. As such, we decided to let you go. But hey, you should be happy for us. Profits are at all time highs..."
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anon, 25 May 2006 @ 1:28pm

Commodization of Labor is a Good Thing
How about making the labor market more efficient. People are actually getting paid for work they perform. Plus, people wouldn't be pigeon-holed into only working for one company, working on one matter, or working in one industry. This movement is inevitable and will make society more meriticious instead of heirarchical based on relationships, networking, and other bullshit.
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entrekken, 25 May 2006 @ 1:31pm

sources
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entrekken, 25 May 2006 @ 1:31pm

sources
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entrekken, 25 May 2006 @ 1:34pm

sources
so one could theoretically, crowdsource using open source to solve their outsourcing needs
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DoxAvg, 25 May 2006 @ 2:55pm

Been there before
Anybody who enjoyed usenet in the late 80's/early 90's know the value of increasingly larger crowds: lower signal/noise ratios. Come to think of it, the rising popularity of TechDirt is another example of the same phenom (first post, my butt).

As the available content grows to infinity, the value is no longer in providing access to the content, but in filtering the content to just the items of value. Witness the fall of Yahoo and the rise of Google. There are lots of photos of flowers. There are lots of freely available photos of flowers. Being able to go to a professional stock photo catalog and look at exclusively _excellent_ phtos of flowers has real cash value to anybody whose time isn't infinite.
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Jeff Howe, 25 May 2006 @ 3:41pm

Well, I do skateboard...
But I don't have an MBA. Or body piercings. Wouldn't it make sense that the person writing the article coined the term, as is indeed the case? At any rate, the word never seemed half as interesting as the examples I studied in order to write the article, a scant few of which made it into the article. I've started a blog -- www.crowdsourcing.com -- so I can give many of these variations on the crowdsourcing model proper consideration, as well as delve into long-term implications. Thanks for reading.
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first post, 25 May 2006 @ 4:08pm

Crapsaucetasticmania!
Crapsaucetasticmania is a new buzzword I just invented to describe the phenonena whereby every idiot feels the need to invent a buzzword to describe any given phenonemon.
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w00fles, 26 May 2006 @ 12:51am

hmm
Perhaps it takes the identification a social/business trend for people to peice together their "business model". The truth is, most companies forget that they DON'T make money...They make a product or service, which they exchange for money.

Why does it take a fucking Wired article for people to remember old concepts like The Delphi effect [Wikipedia]. It's not like some businessman who's very interested in making money would not consider such concepts - Identification of this concept was done back in 70s for god sakes.

The title is correct in assuming this 'trending' is more about hatching new buzzwords than about getting work done,doing things better, or making more money (as a result of making a better product or service).
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Alan, 29 May 2006 @ 6:52am

How come that so many postings to this conversation are negative and critical? Barley a week has gone by and some of those commenting are jumping all over the author and his article! I find it interesting that new definitions and thoughtful research are being done. Hey, if Google search went from barley a handful of hits to 180,000 in a few days something must have registered out there in the blogesphere, or am I just a lonely soul wearing rose-colored glasses? Alan.
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Russell Kord, 31 May 2006 @ 2:58am

crowdsoucing and www.istockphoto.com et al
Crowdsourcing may bring new content at a very low price, but having looked at the presently avaialble content in digital imagery, the quality is very low, in my opinion. However, close to free may often be the only consideration for buyers, and is a powerful incentive.

The downside of people consuming poor quality content at a low price over a long period of time is clear for all to see in the streets and malls of this country. It is however what people want, and they show no signs of altering their behavior even with the health risks involved.

Fortunately digital imagery and video produced by everyone
will probably not give you a heart attack or diabetes, although
it may make finding a competent photographer or videographer
a lot harder in the future.

After all, who will spend time and money to train for a job that pays nothing, to produce great images for consumers that can no longer recognise the difference. Or care.
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Russell Kord, 31 May 2006 @ 3:31am

crowdsourcing and a further thought
There seems to be the idea that crowdsoucring will empower workers,
but the workers who compete in photography have little overhead and
are willing to absorb most of the costs of production for very little return.

It is a reality of the the photography industry that many people will enter it, burn through their friends/family's support for about 18 months, and then return home to work at dad's car dealership/factory in Ohio/Washington. To be replaced of course by a new bunch willing to work for a credit-line and the chance to make it,
until in 99% of the cases they make a similar trip back to Ohio/Washington.

The only people to make money out of this iteration of crowdsourcing are those able to algomerate the work of
people willing to work for little, and take a percentage off the top.

Taking 75% of each $1 download produced by 20,000,000 eager photographers is going to be the only way to make money
in the stock photography business of the future.

It may also be the only way to make money in the industry you
are in, dear reader.
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Lionel, 12 Sep 2006 @ 9:16am

new crowdsourcing project
Hello, I'm the founder of a new crowdsourcing project which aims to design innovative electronic products based on crowdsourcing community. Look at the blog for further details. http://cecrowdsourcing.blogspot.com/ An official website will be launched by mid of october.
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