Last week in Social Media we learned about crowdsourcing.
(Flickr)
The term crowdsourcing was first coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article titled, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”. In the article, Howe explains that technological advances have closed the gap between professionals and amateurs, allowing businesses to take advantage of the talent of the public. By doing this, Howe comes to the conclusion that companies aren’t “outsourcing,” instead they are “crowdsourcing.”
The idea behind crowdsourcing is that there is strength in numbers — the larger the crowd, the higher quality of knowledge, and the better the results will be. Nowadays, many companies are use crowdsourcing to engage their audiences and improve their businesses.
Listening to your audience adds value to your companys brand (Flickr)
One great example is Threadless.com, an online community that has built an entire business by crowdsourcing.
Need a funny shirt idea? Just ask the crowd!
Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online, which are then put to a public vote. The winning designs are then sold online, and their creators are awarded prizes up to $2,000.
This week, I’m going to try and do a little crowdsourcing experiment. Since I started this blog many of my friends have come to me with suggestions for topics they would like me to blog about. So, I thought I would get you all to participate a bit and ask everyone to leave a comment with something they would like me to write about. It can be anything Miami or DC related: Cool places in Dupont Circle, My favorite places to go in Miami, Chongas, Spanglish– Anything!
Okay ready set GO! I’m looking forward to seeing what turns up!
blsindc 