Of Crowdsourcing, Knowledge Workers, and Crowd Accelerated Innovation Part 1
October 8, 2010
An Introduction to Crowd Accelerated Innovation
Seth Godin a well respected thought-leader and Chris Anderson, another well respected thought-leader that represents many of you as the face of TED, recently discussed “one of those big ideas, a simple one that will stick with you for a long time” (Godin, 2010). Seth presents this idea as “Online Video” (2010). Now, to many of you online video is nothing new. In fact, a plethora of non-profit organizations use video nearly everyday to tell their stories. The power and influence of video, especially delivered via the online medium, is hard to argue against. It is due to this non-argument that online video as a communication vehicle is not the topic of this discussion as it was for Seth Godin. Rather, let us discuss briefly the requirements of Crowd Accelerated Innovation, how a knowledge worker might fit into crowdsourcing, and how a nonprofit organization can leverage both.
Chris explains Crowd Accelerated Innovation as, creators and their resultant innovations that deliver to everyone else the message “step your game up” (Anderson, 2010)! While this may not be a physical conscious act, it is nonetheless compounding result of cycles of improvement and leaps in the evolution of an idea that raise the standard of excellence.
According to Anderson (2010) there are three elements that are needed in order to start turning the innovation wheel.
- A Crowd – a group of people whom share a common interest
Chris highlights that the bigger the crowd the more potential innovators, commentators, trend-spotters, cheerleaders, skeptics, super-spreaders, and mavericks that will exist. This group of people will form the fabric, the ecosystem from which innovation emerges.
- Light – clear, open visibility, of what the best people in that crowd are capable of
Chris believes that possessing the knowledge of how others are functioning will allow you to learn how you will be empowered to participate.
- Desire – absent of desire, innovation quite simply will not happen
Innovation is hard work. In most cases it is based upon hundreds of hours of research and practice. This is why it is critical that all members of the crowd be actively engaged within their role.
I encourage you to spend 18 minutes of your life and watch Chris’ presentation to get a better understanding of this form of innovation before reading Part 2 which will be posted in the coming week.
References
Anderson, C. (Presenter). (2010). Chris anderson: how web video powers global innovation. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html
Godin, S. (2010, September 16). Beyond crowdsourcing. Retrieved from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/09/beyond-crowdsourcing.html
40 Days of Water
February 17, 2010
NPOdev is making a change over the next #40Days.
In short, it’s a way to give clean water to Africa by making water your only beverage for the next #40Days
Here are some facts:What if you ONLY drank water for the next 40 days and gave all other drink money to Africa??
Let’s say you spend an average of $4/day on beverages other than water (whether at home or at work), $4 x 40 days = $160 or 321, 920 Ugandan Shillings.
Don’t just give something up; put something better in its place.
Imagine the difference YOU can make! (You can also click the image below.)
Facebook Now Drives More Traffic to Websites
February 16, 2010
Reposted from http://www.steverubel.com/facebook-now-drives-more-traffic-to-web-sites
UPDATE: A couple of notes to clarify this post. First, the chart above, which I pulled from compete.com, shows the top sites that Facebook drives traffic to. Also the headline has been updated to reflect that Facebook is driving more traffic to portals than Google. The San Francisco Chronicle story, linked below, notes that Facebook is only starting to encroach on Google for other sites. The trend, however, still holds.
We’re at the beginning of a major shift in how we find, consume and interact with information. If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade. Already, you can see the writing on the wall – pun intended. Case in point: a search for “google decade danny sullivan” pulls up his Facebook note higher than a blog post (an item I wanted to include here for context). But that’s nothing. Look at the data.
“According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.
This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.
Some experts say social media could become the Internet’s next search engine.”
- Titan/Facebook Chat will challenge Gmail in communications
- Facebook pages will disrupt Google – especially if they were to integrate Bing Maps and location technology a la Foursquare. This can quickly position Facebook as the Web’s Yellow Pages, an area that Google and Yelp currently dominate
- Facebook will make search more social, allowing it to become annotated and curated. This up-ends Google’s core business. It also makes the Facebook self-serve advertising model smarter and more effective as it collects more data about where it sends traffic. This threatens Adwords