About Me

Crowdsourcing: A Definition

  • I like to use two definitions for crowdsourcing:

    The White Paper Version: Crowdsourcing is 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.

    The Soundbyte Version: The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.

Crowdsourcing in the News

  • July 27, 2008: The Washington Post
    While I was on vacation The Post's Jane Black dropped a line to ask me what I thought about crowdsourcing in restaurants. Naturally, I replied that I don't think about crowdsourcing in restaurants. In fact, I'm always asked when crowdsourcing doesn't work, and I've tended to use just such retail examples as this. After all, do you really want the crowd making your tofu chili? This sure shows my lack of imagination. Turns out that a few entrepreneurial restaurateurs are doing just this. Black's piece made A1 in yesterday's paper.
  • March 25, 2007: New York Times and NPR's On the Media
    Another twofer: First, in yesterday's Times Jason Pontin takes a first-hand look at Mechanical Turk, ChaCha.com and Jeff Bezos' notion of "artificial artifical intelligence." His experience is less than satisfactory, and a reminder that not everything should be crowdsourced.

    My favorite NPR show, On the Media, interviews TPM Muckraker's Paul Kiel about the site's recent experiment in crowdsourcing. Muckraker asked its readers to parse the 3,000 emails pertaining to the firing of federal prosecutors that Dept. of Justice released last week. Within hours Muckraker readers were ferreting out compromising passages, some of which led to news leads for MSM pubs, further evidence that the crowd has a promising future in performing investigative functions. Shady politicians (is that phrase redundant?) beware.
  • March 19, 2007: New York Times and Detroit Free Press
    Today's a twofer: The New York Times' David Carr writes about Assignment Zero in his column, "The Media Equation." I edited David a few times at the now defunct Inside.com (It shined brightly but briefly). If memory serves, he could recall obscure circulation figures on certain newspapers and magazines from memory. No mean media critic, in other words. So I was elated to see him give Assignment Zero a cautiously optimistic treatment.

    Crowdsourcing also made the Detroit Free Press today, where religion writer David Crumm writes about how theologians and pastors are using the model to let their congregations "shape a church's worship and programs." I haven't followed the crowdsourcing in religion angle as much as I'd like, and this is a great introduction to the subject.
  • March 16, 2007: Radio: WNYC - Crowdsourcing and Music
    Does user-generated content threaten the recording industry? That presumes there's still a recording industry to speak of. I'm kidding—kinda. But CD sales get more and more anemic and companies building businesses out of unknown bands—call it music by the crowd—look more and more interesting (and viable) all the time. Yesterday I was on one of my favorite WNYC shows, "Soundcheck" discussing all this and more. Stream or download the show here. You can listen to my segment alone (it runs about 20 minutes), but I recommend you listen to the opening segment on the bizarre-but-intriguing midomi.com. Midomi is a social networking site that allows you to search for music by singing a few bars into a microphone connected to your computer. Soundcheck brought in a trained opera singer to put Midomi's software to the test, with humorous results. American Idol-meets-Myspace-meets-iTunes-meets-voice-recognition-software. That's some mash-up. What will those Stanford smarties dream up next?
Blog powered by TypePad

« links for 2008-07-26 | Main | Crowdsourcing: Ethics and Exploitation ... »

July 28, 2008

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4cdf53ef00e553be6bbc8833

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Crowdsourcing: The Trailer:

Comments

Matt

Super video. Love the tilt-shift crowd shots... Some great take-aways from the short video. "Communities are taking the place of corporations" I'll order my copy now ;)

alan booker

Kushner and clan have done a great job in encapsulating the basic elements of CS. The flow of images and commentary is well enough crafted and at a rate, maybe a tad speedy, that the message really arrives unhindered.

The way that the content is built up with really clear yet profound statements, “a new development in the course of human history, online community as a building block, it’s what the corporation is to the industrial era,” gives the strong impression that you are ready for a post teaching grad students Jeff.

Very nice!

Alan

Jeff Howe

Thanks Alan, thanks Mike. Not sure about that teaching post quite yet, Alan, but I'll take it as a compliment. ;)

marcos meconi

nice trailer!

intereseting concept. the internet has a way of bringing people that are apart together and people who are together apart. sometimes i email because it is a safer, non-personal way of interacting with someone... who might be in the other room! on the other hand it's great to be in touch with all my high-school friends.

it's interesting to think about the democratization of media. to take the case mentioned on the trailer, anyone can be a producer of a photograph or film and make it available to thousands of people. that's great. but that doesn't turn you into a photographer or filmmaker. think of pen and paper: they have been available for centuries, but that has not had an impact on the quality of works being produced. just the quantity. i think, maybe i'm wrong.

here's a quote from the unique tom waits which sums up what i mean.

Q: What's wrong with the world?

A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made 12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Great Job Jeff!

Meister, candidate for Sheriff

Subject: Inquiry from Sheriff's Candidate in Lee County, Florida

Dear Sir or Madam:

Concerning the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Florida, I was wondering if any investigative reporter or other person in the United States or at the local level would be interested in investigating the kind of in-house favoritism which condones the employment of a sworn officer who was convicted of battery on a woman and hired by the Lee County Sheriff's Office (and which is also a waste of taxpayers' money in terms of a high turnover-rate).

Additionally, I am seeking any person in Lee County or elsewhere who is interested in having the current administration removed from office and who is interested in assisting me in advancing my political campaign for Lee County Sheriff in order to bring about the change that the people (and taxpayers) deserve.

As an independent candidate without the backing of a political group, I would appreciate any guidance in this matter.

I am looking forward to your response. (Please also review my credentials below and visit my web-site at www.meisterforsheriff.com)

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Christian Meister
Candidate for Lee County Sheriff, 2008
"The People's Sheriff"
www.meisterforsheriff.com
B.A. Communications, Cum Laude, Cal State Fullerton, CA
FDLE Florida State Certified Officer
DCF Child Protection Phase I Certification
U.S. Coast Guard Veteran, Petty Officer, Operation Desert Storm
Former Gubernatorial Candidate in the 2003 California Special Election
Phone: (786) 390-4985

Vote for Christian Meister on November 4, 2008!

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Christian Meister, No Party Affiliation, for Lee County Sheriff

My doc. # 08-0824-2311

eassae

The quality of cheap crowdsourced materials has not reached the level of professional. What has happened is the creation of general overwhelming mediocrity that most people can not discern between because they are bombarded with so much crap. If you want pro you still have to pay a decent price, but eventually there will be nobody willing to pay when corporate sees they can get away with mediocre. Crowdsourcing has destroyed art, photography, and degraded music to an all new low, and thats pretty hard after what MTV did.

penis enlargement

More people know that blog are good for every one where we get lots of information any topics !!! Discover the best male enhancement pills and products for men's health at www.male-sexual-styles.com

Buy term papers

Blogs are so interactive where we get lots of informative on any topics...... nice job keep it up !!

Dissertation Examples

Excellent post and wonderful blog, I really like this type of interesting articles keep it up.

Great job thanks!

Viagra Online

I want to see this trailer.

Top Rated male Enhancement

I really like the post and the blog as well.

Thanks for the both and keep it continue to make such interesting posts.

Nikita

Very interesting trailer !

Buy Viagra

I also really like the post and the blog as well.

Thanks for the both and keep it continue to make such interesting posts.

Collectors Stamps

Air Kushner have a great costumer service, you take the right option.

buy viagra online

Nice blog, its great article informative post, thanks for sharing it. Thanks for the information!

Get Viagra Online

hello people I want to emphasize this blog Excellent my friends have lots of views in the comments that I feel great, keep in that way.

No Prescription Canada Pharmacy

I like the foundation of this blog has a great variety of comments really appreciate it.

Martin Handyside

Crowdsourcing is a relatively new concept in the UK and made headlines a couple of months ago when Unilver decided to find its next advertising idea using crowdsourcing instead of paying its long standing agency to do what it had always done. I can't wait to see the result. The bit I dont understand is when Unilever is awash with new ideas from around the globe for what is I believe a UK food brand(Peperami)how will they manage the selection of best ideas and then the production into the various media. I wonder will they engage their ad agency again for this service or outsource to prodcution specialists? Won't this mean that Unilever has to engage more internal resources to manage this process? Perhaps this far outweighs the saving on the ad agency fee. I can see how crowdsourcing can work to build software etc and even design solutions for graphics for example corporate design but marketing ideas need to be nurtured and fine tuned to communicate with the target audience.

soft cialis

Hi great article I really enjoy reading this blog,thanks, good topic
The quality of cheap crowdsourced materials has not reached the level of professional. What has happened is the creation of general overwhelming mediocrity that most people can not discern between because they are bombarded with so much crap.
Im totally agree with you
thanks

ed hardy

Agree. It's a good article that I can apply this for my routine. I loved it, so usefully. Thanks :)

Masters Dissertation Help

Whenever i see the post like your's i feel that there are still helpful people who share information for the help of others, it must be helpful for other's. thanx and good job.

http://www.mastersdissertation.co.uk/

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

widget

The Trailer


  • Click here to watch the Crowdsourcing trailer and then pass it on.

Events

  • Tuesday, September 2, 7:30 PM
    Author Talk and Signing
    Kepler’s
    San Francisco
    1010 El Camino Real
    Menlo Park, CA 94025

    Wednesday, September 3, 7:00 PM
    Author Talk and Signing
    Barnes and Noble
    San Jose
    1875 S. Bascom Avenue
    Campbell, CA 95008

    Thursday, Sept. 4, 7:30 PM
    Author Talk and Signing
    Seattle
    2675 NE University Village St
    Barnes and Noble

The Rise of Crowdsourcing

  • Read the original article about crowdsourcing, published in the June, 2006 issue of Wired Magazine.