Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business

Tech business books from a decade ago are always a fun read. Crowdsourcing looks like a great concept. The public will use their spare cycles to do things that they enjoy doing. Companies will benefit from "free labor". Only it is not that simple. People will catch on. They wont provide free labor just to help a corporation reduce labor costs. They want their own recognition. They also need appropriate freedom to do it. Computer software has had great success with crowdsourcing. Open Source software is created primarily with free labor. Anybody that wants to code can do so. Corporations will often employ workers to create software that is released as open source. The goal is to more quickly create higher quality software, primarily that which undergirds the "proprietary" software.

Other bits of crowdsourcing take us back to the "renaissance men" previous times. Currently science is primarily performed by credentialed PhDs. Crowdsourced science allows amateurs to participate in research. This can often lead to solutions to hard problems from those with different backgrounds.

Where does crowdsourcing stand today? Companies like Facebook are driven by the content created by users. However, there is pushback from users. There are now increasing demands for privacy there. There is also concerns with fake content. The crowd has driven things down to the least common denominator and generated a need for more moderation. Youtube is going wild with crowdsourced video. Many people have made YouTube their regular job. Many others are seeking to do so. It has become an "open bazaar" rather than a source for crowd generated content. The crowd continues to be willing to "help" as long as they get the compensation (in money or "fame") that they desire.