Thanks to Web 2.0 technologies, we are living in a wired world where collaborations is something we live by. In this age of outsourcing where employees or contractors are hired to perform specific tasks, Jeff Howe of Wired magazine came up with the idea of crowdsourcing-outsourcing to a large and undefined group of people through open call.
Crowdsourcing is the fastest growing web trend that is used by corporations and individuals in several different forms. Collective wisdom of crowd leads to powerful solutions. From Barak Obama’s political campaign and global corporations (Pepsi and Unilever) to small businesses and individuals, crowdsourcing is the name of innovation, quick turnaround, cost-effective solutions, and idea generation beyond their employee-base.
In a classic case of crowdsourcing, the problem is distributed among an undefined group of people (crowd) who offer their solutions. The best solution is selected by the crowdsourcer and solver is compensated in terms of money, prize, or recognition. Let’s take a look at some examples of crowdsourcing.
Innovative Design Solutions
Every small to medium sized business has design needs ranging from logos, banner ads, web design, illustrations, brochures, mobile apps, to merchandise designs. Crowdsourcing solutions like 99 Designs provide a design contest marketplace with thousands of contributing designers worldwide.
The service allows you to launch a contest, collaborate with a wide pool of designers, pick the perfect design, and pay only for the selected design. It’s simple, cost-effective, and provides an opportunity to compare several designs at a time which makes it better than an overpriced in-house designer.
Naming and Branding Solutions
Coming up with an original, catchy and brand-able domain for your blog or website is quite tricky, and getting it vacant is even trickier. Here come the crowdsourcing solutions, such as, Picky Domains . It’s a creative service that provides an online community of 51986 contributors worldwide. A diverse crowd of people brainstorms over your requirements and comes up with unique domain names or slogans. The service is 100% risk free and cost-effective since you only pay for what you select.
Consumer-led Innovation
Product improvement and innovation is vital for success and survival of a business. For a big corporation like Dell, continuous improvement is something that gives them an edge over their competitors. To stay competitive through consumer participation, Dell came up with crowsourcing solution at Idea Storm.
It is an external idea sourcing platform for consumers where they contribute product ideas and suggestions. In this way, Dell stretches the limits of idea and innovation beyond its own creative team.
Crowdsourcing Marketplace
Businesses and entrepreneurs always seek cost-effective solutions to their problems. Oftentimes, they are stuck with a project because the cost involved in hiring a skilled team outweighs the value of project itself. For such issues, Amazon provides a crowdsourcing solution Amazon Mechanical Turk at M Turk.
By turning fixed cost into variable costs, MTurk facilitates such businesses to complete those projects in an economical way. It’s a diverse marketplace that enables computer programmers to synchronize the use of human intelligence and execute the tasks that computers cannot perform.
Stock Photography
Images certainly speak louder than words. The statement is even more relevant in media age. Images are everywhere, from a facebook page and tumbler to advertising banners and TVCs. They attract, motivate, and inspire us every day.
Despite all that images have to offer, they are expensive. To businesses and individuals’ relief, microstock site iStockPhotos is an economical yet effective crowdsourcing solution. It offers millions of high-quality images from thousands of photographers worldwide. It is a leading crowdsourcing company that offers royalty-free images for all your business needs.
The idea of crowdsourcing is continuously evolving. It may not replace traditional markets, but its huge potential and flexibility is still untapped. Besides creativity, innovative ideas, fresh perspectives, and inspired solutions, it has a lot more to offer to future marketplace.
About Ali Waqas
Twitter: itkitab4u
says:
From someone in the industry, I have to agree with all of this and so much more! My firm, for instance, is a business process innovation consultancy which uses our contracted workers (our “crowd”) to actually act on the consultations we offer!
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Twitter: Ajayudayagiri
says:
Awesome article!
After reading this post i realized the importance of the crowd sourcing.
Thanks for sharing
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Twitter: Amarillindra
says:
Nice Article and informative one
Thanks for sharing
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Crowdsourcing is giving the new name to the world of Internet and it is grown at rapid speed. The powerful solutions can be achieve by the collective wisdom of crowd. The quick turnaround, innovation and the costeffective solutions are the words which are related to the Crowdsourcing.
Betaalbare webdesign
Great Post, I really enjoyed reading.
and I will Surely apply it.
Thanks Admin.
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Twitter: sadayk
says:
Really this post is very informative. Frankly speaking Internet Crowdsourcing is very new word for me before reading this beautiful post. Thanks Ali for this.
Twitter: KontegoNetworks
says:
I’m seriously impressed with this post!
All small business owners must be so inspired when seeing this list – it just makes everything so much easier and in my opinion cheaper.. You waste less time planning and getting these software to do it.
Thanks for the list!
Katie
Twitter: engagedots
says:
Wow good topic, crowdsourcing enhance a cost effective solutions for any business process. It is the best way to expand the business still wider.
Twitter: crowdworkers
says:
Great article, Ali! Crowdsourcing is a cost effective way of solving many complex business problems at an unprecendented speed. Crowdsourcing is definitely changing the way the world ‘works’.
Twitter: antonrsa
says:
Hi Ali
I do agree with you – crowdsourcing is continuously evolving and may not replace traditional markets overall – But the advantages crowd sourcing can have for you or your business might just be worth the penny you’ll pay. It’s still being used by quite a lot of businesses and businesses wanting to start up and in need of some “minor delegation”.
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Anyone can accomplish great things, if they apply themselves wholeheartedly!
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Twitter: 3mwindowfilmTO
says:
I really like the idea of 99 Designs. Makes it a lot more cost effective having to pay only for the design you’ve selected without having to pay for all those different design variations.
Twitter: PeopleForce
says:
From someone in the industry, I have to agree with all of this and so much more! My firm, for instance, is a business process innovation consultancy which uses our contracted workers (our “crowd”) to actually act on the consultations we offer!
Please check us out, and keep us in mind if anyone needs any crowdsourcing services in the future!
The ideas you’ve shared here are fantastic and no doubt so great and it may really improve the variety of individuals visiting your website.
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Twitter: techsparx1
says:
hello
very nice article thnx for this wonderful information and very valuable information will share it wid my another blogger frnd to thnx for the help
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The content of the blog full of life’s comprehension, and maintain positive, good state of mind, life can have meaning, just have the passion to create great achievements…Thanks for sharing…
Nice article and thank your valuable information and I wish you luck
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Crowdsourcing has numerous advantages and there are many successful projects that have started in this way. In addition, I consider that the in the future there will be more similar ventures.
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Thanks for this great post, now I know the important and usefulness of croudsourcing, thanks a lot.
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