Archive for the ‘Crowdsourcing’ Category

Chaordix: Harnessing the Wisdom of the Crowds

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

As you know, crowdsourcing is at the heart of what we do here at ChumBonus, leveraging your pool of friends, family, and acquaintances and their knowledge of you and your capabilities to aid you in finding great jobs, but we’re certainly not the only ones harnessing the power of this concept. Our friends over at Chaordix are leading the way in tapping into the wellspring of knowledge and potential innovation that comes when a business turns to a ‘global pool of consumers, citizens, and partners’ for ideas and feedback.

Traditional market research relies on small focus groups or advisers for input into new company products, concepts, or bold new strategies for innovative companies who have a true desire to remain successful.  Chaordix knows that large groups of people can actually be more effective problem solvers, innovators and decision makers than smaller, more specialized groups.  Taking inspiration from James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, Chaordix can put the hand of your business on the pulse of the masses, which in all likelihood consist of many of your customers but also free roaming problem solvers, researchers, and idea generators that lurk in everyday people like you and me.

Tapping into the mind of the crowd allows businesses to find out directly what the consumer wants and how they want it.  What better source of information and feedback than the very people who use or have an interest in your product or services?

Chaordix is not just about enlisting the help of the public for idea generation or problem solving though.  They can help your business turn inward to get a better feel for directions, strategies and improvements from the very people you depend on to make things happen: your employees and partners.  It’s a great way to build trust and a sense of community and involvement for all involved.

Turning to the power of the crowd for ideas, feedback and solutions to potentially unsolvable problems is a smart way to move your business forward in the 21st century and our friends at Chaordix can help you get started.  Check out their website at www.chaordix.com.

The Power of Crowdsourcing

Monday, April 26th, 2010

The term crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe in an article he wrote for Wired magazine in 2006, though the concept has been around for some time in one form or another really.  If you think about it, the want-ad is really a form of crowdsourcing, predating even the Internet!  Check out this ad posted on Google Groups from 1994Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon.com in 1995 was well aware of the power of the crowd even then.  And with the rise of Internet connectivity since then, the power of crowdsourcing has grown wildly, allowing companies to tap into this wellspring of creativity and innovation in new and exciting ways.

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One excellent example, as mentioned in Howe’s article is the popular site iStockphoto— a site which gives photographers a place to show off their work, selling pictures and obtaining royalties in the process. Its entire catalog is member generated.  And another example, and one that readily comes to mind for many is everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, which taps the power of the commons to deliver accurate information on almost any subject you can think of.

Last year Netflix cashed in, or out rather, on a crowdsourcing project they began in 2006 by asking for improvements in the way their system recommended movies to its users.  A team of seven successfully answered the call and were awarded $1 million.  This is a prime example of how companies are leveraging the knowledge and ingenuity of the crowd for results which they may not have obtained by more conventional R&D methods and expenditures, or by staying within the confines of their own company.

Earlier this year crowdsourcing (read about it here and here) was put to amazing use in aiding the recovery efforts in Haiti after the devastating earthquake which struck there.  Using social media, texting, and satellite imagery analysis, volunteers, not only on the ground, but from all over the world were able to help direct the need for supplies to proper locations, and rescue workers to sites of potential survivors.

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And just last week, Microsoft unveiled a new crowdsourcing platform for politicians and candidates to aid in engaging the public and promoting discussion on issues at the community level.  Crowdsourcing is everywhere.

In a post two weeks ago we highlighted the crowd call of StumbleUpon for a programmer that had a very tempting referral bonus attached to it.  Crowdsourcing is a powerful tool, not just for companies, but for all of us.  It harnesses the power of our new found connectivity and shrinking world and can enable us all to help in finding new ideas and relevant solutions for today’s complex world.

ChumBonus is proud to be leading the way in applying the power of crowdsourcing to finding jobs.  By tapping the power of the crowd (your friends), and offering great incentives on top of that, ChumBonus is not only helping folks find jobs, but also lining the pockets of the potential referrer, and that could be you!