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I'm crowdsourcing the questions I should ask crowdsourcing expert John Winsor

document Crowd Creativity, Distributed Knowledge

I’m crowdsourcing the questions I should ask crowdsourcing expert John Winsor

Image copyright Denver Post Crowdsourcing as a pure concept has been around for a while. In my business, you need look no further than the typical agency review in which a client invites multiple agencies to submit their best thinking and creative ideas (usually for no pay) and then picks the one it believes will do the best job. The now ubiquitous online forum is another example of crowdsourcing. Have a problem or a question? Float it out there among the online masses and, if you’re lucky, someone will offer up the answer you need. In the last couple of years, however, crowdsourcing and its counterpart cocreation have started to become business strategies if not actual models. Companies as diverse as Dell, Proctor & Gamble and Starbucks have aggressively pursued ways in which customers can help create or inspire new products (co-creation). And platforms such as Crowdspring have made it easy for companies to put projects from new applications to logo designs out for individual competition (crowdsourcing). These practices, accelerated by the web and social media, raise all kinds of questions. Will crowdsourcing and co-creation, by tapping into the talent of many more people, actually increase innovation? Will they reduce the cost of development and design and along with it the salaries of people who create for a living?

Will they help in solving those large, unsolvable problems; everything from healthcare to education to global warming? Will they change the traditional relationships between employers and employees? And finally, are crowdsourcing and co-creation here to stay, or are they simply convenient alternatives to business as usual in a miserable economy. In early August, I have the privilege of interviewing crowdsourcing advocate and believer John Winsor for the Ad Club of Boston. John is the VP/Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. He’s also the author of Spark: Be more Innovative through Co-Creation and Beyond the Brand: Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business. John thinks crowdsourcing is here to stay. (In fact right now he’s crowdsourcing the manuscript for his new book Flipped.) In a recent Business Week editorial John argues that even after the global financial crisis comes to an end, the new marketplaces that support crowdsourcing will continue to evolve, offering “a more efficient and creative way for companies to engage with and harness the crowd for help.” I agree for three reasons. One: if businesses can find access to more ideas for less they will, down economy or not. Two: today’s customers and prospects actually want a voice and a say in influencing a brand and its products. So they’re ready and willing to participate. And three: there’s a huge and growing number of people who are motivated not just by the money, but by the fame and reputation that comes from being an influencer or co-creator. However, there are at least three big questions that remain. 1. To what degree will companies change their entire models if they are to take full advantage of the crowd as their source of ideas? Will they cut employees and spend more money sourcing the crowd? Will they attempt to become more competitive by paying less for content and products? Will they be forced to work this way if their competitors do? 2. Will all workers have to become entrepreneurs? What if you’re a designer and all of a sudden all design work is solicited this way? Will you compete nonstop for opportunities? Will you be able to get use to the unpredictability of work and income? Will you resist even participating and urge others to do the same?

3. How will we manage collaboration? It’s common to write software this way. But what about projects or campaigns that call for everyone on the team to have a well-oiled working relationship, understanding and respecting each other’s roles, knowing how to seamlessly tap into institutional knowledge? Will crowdsourcing require organizations to learn new ways of encouraging collaboration in an era when everything – idea, design, technology, production – is more connected than ever? These are some of the questions I’ll be asking John, who knows a lot more about it than I do. But I do know one thing. In the age of crowdsourcing, I’m supposed to ask you, the crowd for ideas. So, got any questions? Ideas? Answers? Please share.

Summary In the process of preparing to interview crowdsourcing advocate Jon Winsor, the author raises a few strong questions about the future of crowdsourcing and its effect on existing traditional processes/models of companies.

Description In parallel to convincing the readers that crowdsourcing is here to stay, the author raises some thought-provoking questions in this article, about the challenges and impact of crowdsourcing and co-creation, across industries and processes

Tags: Business Week, Collaboration, Crispin, CrowdSPRING, Dell, John Winsor, Porter + Bogusky, Proctor & Gamble, Social Media, Starbucks

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I'm crowdsourcing the questions I should ask crowdsourcing expert John Winsor

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I'm crowdsourcing the questions I should ask crowdsourcing expert John Winsor

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