Comments on: Sourcing the Right Crowd http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/ Business + Technology in the Exponential Economy Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:53:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Matt Johnston http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/comment-page-1/#comment-41732 Matt Johnston Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:51:47 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=5932#comment-41732 Anne, Great post. I'd be interested in hearing your (and/or your readers') thoughts on the crowdsourcing space at large. It seems that there are at least two types of sites / businesses within this realm: 1. Those that solicit feedback and ideas around products or solutions. Example include those cited above. 2. Those that connect companies or consumers with skilled professionals. Examples include Elance (www.elance.com), ServiceMagic (www.servicemagic.com) and my firm, uTest (www.utest.com). Obviously, both face some of the same challenges, including: *Building and profiling a community of users who supply the ideas or skills. *Establishing rewards and reputation systems --both monetary and non-monetary -- that incent the desired behavior. *Creating stickiness outside the transaction. However, I'm convinced that there are some unique challenges between these two segments, and that there may even be other types of crowdsourcing sites. I'd love to hear from others who are living within this evolving space every day. Best regards, Matt Johnston VP of Marketing uTest, Inc. www.utest.com Anne,

Great post. I’d be interested in hearing your (and/or your readers’) thoughts on the crowdsourcing space at large. It seems that there are at least two types of sites / businesses within this realm:

1. Those that solicit feedback and ideas around products or solutions. Example include those cited above.
2. Those that connect companies or consumers with skilled professionals. Examples include Elance (www.elance.com), ServiceMagic (www.servicemagic.com) and my firm, uTest (www.utest.com).

Obviously, both face some of the same challenges, including:
*Building and profiling a community of users who supply the ideas or skills.
*Establishing rewards and reputation systems –both monetary and non-monetary — that incent the desired behavior.
*Creating stickiness outside the transaction.

However, I’m convinced that there are some unique challenges between these two segments, and that there may even be other types of crowdsourcing sites. I’d love to hear from others who are living within this evolving space every day.

Best regards,
Matt Johnston

VP of Marketing
uTest, Inc.
http://www.utest.com

]]> By: Have you considered crowdsourcing? | IP Marketing Advisor http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/comment-page-1/#comment-37216 Have you considered crowdsourcing? | IP Marketing Advisor Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:35:21 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=5932#comment-37216 [...] Crowdsourcing — aggregating a large number of people to express their opinions or ideas about specific topics — can be critical to the success of your commercialization efforts, says Anne Swift, founder of Young Inventors International. “Commercialization is rarely a solitary pursuit; bringing an idea to the world requires a set of diverse skills and knowledge, a proverbial commercialization village. Or a crowd,” she says. “Enter the power of crowdsourcing.” An integral part of that process, she continues, is matching the right type of crowd to two stages of the commercialization process: a diverse crowd for brainstorming of breakthrough innovations, and a large crowd for refining the product for the market. “Research repeatedly shows that groups with diverse backgrounds propose the largest number of unique solutions to a problem,” says Swift. “This has also been my experience with BrainBuzzes, brainstorming events that I organize for Young Inventors International.” However, she says, the success of an innovation depends not only on its ingenuity but also on its appeal to and adoption by the market. This is often accomplished through focus groups; the Internet makes large numbers of participants possible. “The number of participants matters more in this case,” says Swift. “Indeed, the ideal crowd to source is one comprising of all potential customers.” Go to: Xconomy [...] [...] Crowdsourcing — aggregating a large number of people to express their opinions or ideas about specific topics — can be critical to the success of your commercialization efforts, says Anne Swift, founder of Young Inventors International. “Commercialization is rarely a solitary pursuit; bringing an idea to the world requires a set of diverse skills and knowledge, a proverbial commercialization village. Or a crowd,” she says. “Enter the power of crowdsourcing.” An integral part of that process, she continues, is matching the right type of crowd to two stages of the commercialization process: a diverse crowd for brainstorming of breakthrough innovations, and a large crowd for refining the product for the market. “Research repeatedly shows that groups with diverse backgrounds propose the largest number of unique solutions to a problem,” says Swift. “This has also been my experience with BrainBuzzes, brainstorming events that I organize for Young Inventors International.” However, she says, the success of an innovation depends not only on its ingenuity but also on its appeal to and adoption by the market. This is often accomplished through focus groups; the Internet makes large numbers of participants possible. “The number of participants matters more in this case,” says Swift. “Indeed, the ideal crowd to source is one comprising of all potential customers.” Go to: Xconomy [...]

]]> By: Rotman New Ventures Group | Ignite your entrepreneurial spark. Inspire you to take the road less traveled. Equip you for your journey. http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/comment-page-1/#comment-36924 Rotman New Ventures Group | Ignite your entrepreneurial spark. Inspire you to take the road less traveled. Equip you for your journey. Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:18:39 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=5932#comment-36924 [...] http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/ Tags: [...] [...] http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/ Tags: [...]

]]> By: Ross Kimbarovsky http://www.xconomy.com/national/2008/10/30/sourcing-the-right-crowd/comment-page-1/#comment-36645 Ross Kimbarovsky Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:24:35 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=5932#comment-36645 Hi Anne, We've been big fans of Innocentive from the moment we started working on crowdSPRING (http://www.crowdspring.com). You are absolutely right that the success of innovation depends on the appeal of the "product" to the market or the community. And this is something that we've recognized from the start. We launched in May 2008 and in our first five months, we've built a community of buyers from 32 countries and over 8,200 designers from 130+ countries. crowdSPRING focuses on graphic design at the moment. Buyers who need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content post what they need, when they need it and how much they want to pay. Once posted, creatives from around the world will submit actual work – not bids or proposals as they would on the marketplaces you've listed in your article – for the buyer to review. As the submissions come in, buyers are able to review, sort, rate, provide feedback and collaborate with creatives until they find the "the one." crowdSPRING provides customized legal contracts, full project management, robust notifications, and many more. As you've correctly pointed out, it's important that the community in a crowdsourcing marketplace receive incentives to participate. For many, these incentives must stretch beyond monetary compensation, since it's unlikely that everyone can receive money. And some companies, like DELL, have figured out that there are ways to create incentives and persuade people to contribute. On our own site, we provide lots of education and collaboration opportunities and this has helped us to build a great community in a short amount of time. In fact, we were recently honored when WIRED magazine named us as one of 5 small biz finalists in their 2008 competition (winner to be decided in December). Best, Ross Kimbarovsky co-Founder http://www.crowdspring.com Hi Anne,

We’ve been big fans of Innocentive from the moment we started working on crowdSPRING (http://www.crowdspring.com). You are absolutely right that the success of innovation depends on the appeal of the “product” to the market or the community. And this is something that we’ve recognized from the start. We launched in May 2008 and in our first five months, we’ve built a community of buyers from 32 countries and over 8,200 designers from 130+ countries. crowdSPRING focuses on graphic design at the moment. Buyers who need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content post what they need, when they need it and how much they want to pay. Once posted, creatives from around the world will submit actual work – not bids or proposals as they would on the marketplaces you’ve listed in your article – for the buyer to review. As the submissions come in, buyers are able to review, sort, rate, provide feedback and collaborate with creatives until they find the “the one.” crowdSPRING provides customized legal contracts, full project management, robust notifications, and many more.

As you’ve correctly pointed out, it’s important that the community in a crowdsourcing marketplace receive incentives to participate. For many, these incentives must stretch beyond monetary compensation, since it’s unlikely that everyone can receive money. And some companies, like DELL, have figured out that there are ways to create incentives and persuade people to contribute.

On our own site, we provide lots of education and collaboration opportunities and this has helped us to build a great community in a short amount of time. In fact, we were recently honored when WIRED magazine named us as one of 5 small biz finalists in their 2008 competition (winner to be decided in December).

Best,

Ross Kimbarovsky
co-Founder
http://www.crowdspring.com

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