links for 2008-07-25

• CureTogether: Open Source Medical Research
  From the press release: "CureTogether brings patients and researchers together in a massive worldwide collaboration to find cures for some of the most painful, prevalent, chronic conditions affecting millions of people every day. By opening up scientific research to brilliant minds around the world, we can work together to give people a chance at a pain-free life."
• From Wikinomics: MyFootballClub Goes Live, Funders Take a Bye
  From the post: When MyFootballClub was launched, numerous sports “experts” thought it would be a massive failure because the “crowd” wouldn’t be knowledgeable enough to select the squad. Now that the option is available, most of the crowd is choosing not to vote - opting rather to let the coach decide. While this is now being spun as a “failure” of the model, might it just represent that the crowd is rational enough to realize that the coach is in a better position to select the squad on a day-to-day basis, and they are happy leaving him to do so (until perhaps he proves himself unworthy?)."

• CrowdsourceThis.com on Cambrian House Sale

  Many of you have probably followed Cambrian House's travails as it makes the transition from retail crowdsourcer to vendor of crowdsourcing backend systems. The company has unfairly been tarred as a failure, though that judgment isn't entirely accurate. One of the more successful products that came out of the Cambrian House system was Wishing Well, a crowdfunding effort that was later rechristened GreedyOrNeedy. From the post: "Cambrian House has entered into a licensing deal with MakeGood a Vancouver based company that specialises in something they call Giving 2.0. Under the deal Cambrian House will supply MakeGood with its Chaordix platform and GreedyorNeedy.com (GoN) in exchange for cash and equity."

Comments

[Alexandra Carmichael]

Hi Jeff,
Thank you for mentioning CureTogether on your blog. We're excited about applying crowdsourcing to reducing human suffering from disease.
Early days, but so many powerful crowdsourcing applications. We're looking forward to your book!
Alexandra
Co-Founder, CureTogether