According to Jeff Howe, crowdsourcing is "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.“
Its simplicity lies in the fact that you ask those in your network to help you out and therefore you tap into their collective (network's) intelligence resulting in the by-passing of expensive third party vendors/consultants. With more and more people logging onto the internet and using social media everyday, this was bound to happen.
However, quantity may not always relate to quality. Putting yourself out there to the wrong audience won't lead you to gather great insights. Instead, crowdsourcing may be just the tip of the iceberg, perhaps a testing ground or starting point to narrowing your target audience.
"We need to nurture and fund inventors and give them time to explore, play and fail. A false idea of the crowd reduces the motivation for this investment, with the supposition that companies can tap the minds of inventors on the cheap." (Woods, Dan. The Myth of Crowdsourcing)
For in-depth analysis and valuable insights, companies need to develop relationships and engage with the RIGHT audience that will lead to their PARTICIPATION in the process. That'll be the differentiating factor between firms that are merely data collectors and those that see the inventors in the outside world as a their partners.
Articles:
Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing. Youtube.Image from: Social Signal
Woods, Dan. The Myth of Crowdsourcing. Forbes.com
