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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.

The Rise of Crowdsourcing

  • Read the original article about crowdsourcing, published in the June, 2006 issue of Wired Magazine.
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January 22, 2009

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Comments

Jason

Glad to have you back.

Erica Grigg

Jeff,

Thanks very much for keeping up with your blog. I'm a big fan!

As a social entrepreneur and sustainability marketer, I'm blogging about using new media tools to crowdsource for both business and sustainability purposes. I've seen the success of CarrotMobs in New York City and London and have heard of (and seen on youtube) massive flashmobs across the world.

Might you be able to give me a few sentences for my blog about what you think the future of crowdsourcing might look like?

Thank you very much in advance,
Erica Grigg

ahmedalaa

thanks for your tobic ..

best regaards ..

....................................
www.ebdaa.yoo7.com

Tabish Bhimani

quite a trip eh, Jeff? I'm really glad you got some personal time considering you've been so swamped. And it's good to see the radio silence go away for a while :)

Cheers buddy.

Jim Bennette

In Peter Kollocks study of human contributions to online communities in The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace, he points out that Web 2.0 did not invent anything. Rather, Web 2.0 simply made possible what people wanted to do anyway.

When I think about President Obama's approach to his campaign he really created Election 2.0 where it was the first time people could get involved with him if only indirectly via crowdsourcing. Similarly in his campaign he made possible what people wanted to do anyway; have a say in the country's outcome. The result was President Obama was able to ensure that his campaign appealed to his followers.

Now it is time for Presidency 2.0 where we use crowdsourcing to help re-shape our nation. We are still far from the finish line but at least we are in the race!

I for one am very excited.

TheCrowd is gathering.........

Margarida Cardoso

I think we all have to admire American people, because in the middle of the worst crisis you sure managed to find the best choice for President. And you're obviously happy about that! Congratulations!

Drew Bachman

Jeff:

While I was reading the Wall Street Journal article Wall Street Criticizes 'Bad Bank' this morning, it occurred to me that another opportunity for the Obama administration to employ crowdsourcing would be to assist in the valuation of mortgage pools as part of the financial bailout package. Specifically, one of the problems faced by the markets is that determining the value of these pools is very difficult due in part to uncertainty regarding the repayment risk of the individual mortgages making up the pool. These pools, as I understand it, could be comprised of hundreds of separate loans from borrowers across the country. Some of the mortgages are more risky (e.g., those used to purchase speculative properties, or used by individual families to purchase a more expensive house than they could afford) and some are less risky (e.g., those used by very conservative families with secure jobs to buy a modest residence). Making sense of each separate situations, once they are pooled together and sliced into traunches would be an enormous undertaking. That is where crowdsourcing would come in.

Similar to the virtual markets you discuss in Crowdsourcing that were used to value presidential candidates or Hollywood projects, a mortgage virtual market could be used to "value" the individual mortgages that are pooled to formed these mortgage backed securities. Putting the obvious privacy issues aside for a moment, individual participants in the market could bid (or short) individual mortgages based on their individual knowledge (local knowledge) of the mortgage. Like the armature astronomers who use a few minutes or a few hours to map craters on Mars, individual participants spending relatively little time could pretty quickly "value" all the mortgages. The crowd's opinions on the individual mortgages could then be aggregated to estimate the value of the mortgage pools comprising those mortgages.

If there were a way to manage the privacy issues, the crowd might be a effective tool for making sense of the mortgage mess.

kaleb

GPS navigation devices from Garmin are well-known. The brand has already created its own distinct identity in this sphere. More recently, the company has directed its endeavours towards the sat nav devices that can be used in cars. The designs of these devices are slick and sophisticated. The screens are large and clear. The quality of the in-built loud speakers leaves little more to be desired. And the features are excellent, to say the least.

watzabatza

i like the way they dance... a dance of triumph... i hope Obama can handle many issues and crisis he face today.

moving boxes

I love this video.
President Obama is so down to earth.

kraloyun

GPS navigation devices from Garmin are well-known. The brand has already created its own distinct identity in this sphere. More recently, the company has directed its endeavours towards the sat nav devices that can be used in cars. The designs of these devices are slick and sophisticated. The screens are large and clear. The quality of the in-built loud speakers leaves little more to be desired. And the features are excellent, to say the least.

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Blogging the Nieman

  • A Quick Note About This Blog ...
    My name is Jeff Howe. I'm a contributing editor at Wired magazine. I started this blog, crowdsourcing.com, in June 2006 to accompany an article I wrote entitled, The Rise of Crowdsourcing. I'm currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and this blog is largely dedicated to providing a window into my experiences this year.

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The Trailer


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