I don’t get the whole idea behind crowdsourcing. I know how the process works. A company or person poises a question or problem and then people provide what they believe would be the best solution. But I still don’t get it. Is it me or is this new way to get cheap labor? Crowdsourcing really is just a term that companies use to justify that they are tapping into the minds of really innovative individuals for little to no money.
I used to think that the “crowd” was crazy for providing major companies with valuable innovative information for free. To be honest, I still kind of do. What kind of person sits around all day thinking of solutions for a company that may pay them pennies for all of their hard work? If you are that smart then at least make them hire you and pay you a couple of thousand of dollars for your innovative thinking. Now, I kind of feel sorry for these people. These people are being exploited by companies that take their ideas and use them to make their company better in some way.
The article The Myth of Crowdsourcing explains how the word “crowd” implies to people that as a team we are coming up with a better solution to the problem. In reality it is a bunch of people that provide useless information and one really intelligent, innovative individual who provides the solution. I believe the word crowd allows these companies to divert the attention away from the fact that they are really tapping into one individual’s intelligence not a crowd of people that are bouncing ideas off of each other. Call me crazy but I believe that inventors should be rewarded fairly for their hard work.
I agree with your post, and Jeff's response to my recent post mirrors your feelings. Part of me wonders though, if are we better off if these intelligent innovators are feeding companies with ideas that might make our lives better, even if it is at the expense of their own personal gain? They may not have the time/resources to make their idea a reality, and it would be a shame to have it slip away.
ReplyDeleteShannon, I understand your point of view, but you must consider some people want to be helpful regardless of compensation. What's wrong with that if they are so willing? Companies aren't making these folks contribute, they are doing it themselves and get some self satisfaction out of it. By the way if anyone is interested in a great crowd sourcing web site, check out http://tipd.com/. Lots of helpful info from helpful folks :)
ReplyDeleteShannon, I think point out 2 points: 1. Why do those crowd provide ideas that they would only earn pennies? 2. the innovation is from individual work not the crowd.
ReplyDeleteFor the 1st point, I have slightly different thought from yours. I always believe "sharing" is a big part of human nature. Like Peter said, some people are just willing to share no matter how big or small benefits they can get. Also, let's think even further and deeper, maybe the crowds gain way more benefits than they expect. There are so many talented people living in the world, but they don't have the platform to show their ideas, designs, it might be a chance to enhance their portfolios and profiles for future use by joining companies' competition and win the 1st prize.
As for the 2nd point, I totally agree the article The Myth of Crowdsourcing mentioned that innovation is not created by the crowd. However, I am a little confused here the definition of "crowdsourcing". Does it refer to "innovation"? Or does it refer to "getting close to consumers and let them speak"?