Jeff Howe first coined the term ‘crowdsourcing’ in an issue of Wired in June of 2006 as the act of taking a job tradionaly performed by an employee and outsourcing (or providing an open call) to an large undefined community. There is an ever growing variety of platforms that crowdsourcing can be applied or adapted to such as: photo sharing, blogging, microblogging, RSS, widgets, chat rooms, social networking, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing.
“Used properly, [Crowdsourcing] can generate new ideas, shorten research and development time, cut developmental costs, and create a direct, emotional connection with the customers.” Jessi Hempei, Business Week <Crowdsourcing: milk for the masses>
Watch Jeff Howe explain the term “Crowdsourcing”
or read more from Jeff Howe at his Blog dedicated to Crowdsourcing here
-Businesses approach us as partners rather than strictly consumers, creating a drive for participation.
Of course there is the easy and very popular example of Crowdsourcing, Wikipedia, where the users create the content, but I would rather give an example less heard of, Herdict. “Herdict uses crowdsourcing to learn about and present a real time view of the experiences of users around the globe”. For example if you come across a site that is blocked or inaccessible you can report the problem to Herdict and see if others users, around the area or the world, are having the same problem with that webpage and what a possible reasosn for the site malfunctioning.
Check out the trailer for the unveiling of Herdict.org
Check out a long and growing list of businesses using crowdsourcing here
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