Making Crowdsourcing Work For You

When I see the same buzzword used in three different sources in the space of a few days, I know that it’s worth looking into. Crowdsourcing has been floating around as an idea since last year, but recently it seems to be have been getting some quality air time. So what is it?… and how can you use it?

Crowdsourcing, like outsourcing, is all about who you get to do work that’s valuable to your company. In this case it’s not sending the work off to another company on some far flung shore, but structuring tasks so that crowds of individuals can bid, compete, and deliver inspirational results in small chunks.

For commercial ventures currently making the most out of crowdsourcing, check out:

Sitepoint – Create a design competition, and pay the winner for their work
iStockPhoto – Photographers around the world will sell you the rights to their pictures
Threadless – This company run T-shirt design contests and then sell the winners shirts

How can you make crowdsourcing work for you? What are the magic ingredients for successful crowdsourcing?

1) Inspirational work. Coming up with a great slogan or killer logo does not get easier the more money you throw at the problem. One guy walking his dog can beat the best advertising agency in the world if inspiration catches him.

2) Ubiquitous tool-sets. The Adobe suite of creative tools, Microsoft Visual studio, and the modern digital camera, are all professional level tool-sets that are to be found in the hands of private users around the world. The cost of entry of doing work using these tool-sets is small, and the people who have gone to the trouble of getting hold of these tools have done so for a reason…. They love to work with them! It’s what they do for fun!

3) Small tasks. Obviously a 3 man-year project is a little difficult for a teenager in Mumbai to deliver, but put him in competition with his friends to design a logo, or deliver a CMS template and he may surprise you.

4) Connected community. You need a crowd to crowdsource, whether that be all of the employees in your company, or an on-line meeting place for the hippest designers. Communities are Web 2.0, and you need to find or create a vibrant one if you want to crowdsource!

So, if you have a problem that needs an inspirational answer, that can be chunked down, given to a community, and solved with a ubiquitous tool-set … think about crowdsourcing. It’s a “wisdom of crowds” thing used for commercial gain.

Have you seen any good examples of crowdsourcing recently? I’d love to hear about them.

— Jason Bates

Tags:  crowdsourcing, threadless, sitepoint, istockphoto

Comments

[Kara]

Jason,

I just thought I'd pop in to let you know iStock also sells video clips from $5-$50, and our top photographer just sold her 500,000th image. She makes between $100-$200K a year.

[Jason Bates]

Thanks Kara,

As a keen iStockPhoto user (see the little pictures by each post) I noticed this morning that Lise had reached the 500,000th image download. with only about 5000 images, and over 100 downloads an image...she's a poster child for the kind of quality you can achieve with crowdsourcing.

I was talking to someone this morning about the phrase "pay it forward" and its use in professional networking. I think that it's just the same with crowdsourcing!

Thanks for the comment,

Jason

[Tamar]

"They love to work with them! It’s what they do for fun!"

As a professional designer with 10+ years of professional design experience under my belt, I am offended at your choice of words.

Yes, this is a job that I love, but it is still work. I am not "playing around" when I open up the Adobe Creative Suite programs, but rather working billable hours.

So please, before making such broad comments as those, think about it. There are people out there that are actually making a living using those tools. Please don't insult us.

[Jason Bates]

Tamar,

Thanks for your comment.

I think that you'll find that in that paragraph I was referring to 'private users' who use ubiquitous tool sets for fun.

I wouldn't expect professional graphics designers to even entertain the idea of being a crowdsourcing provider... eroding your business by doing 'speculative' work is not generally a good idea for most professionals... (unless you are really-really good, and want to build relationships with new clients by proving that fact, before they pay you... risky, but possible)

More generally... there are people out there, 'amateurs' in the traditional sense of the word, who love entering contests, love using and creating with the tools, and like to earn a little money on the side, This is what crowdsourcing is about.

the scary thing is that there are some really good amateurs out there!

It's going to make the market for low-end design services more competitive, and I think that professional designers will be squeezed, but hey, thats the deal... I don't think that crowdsourcing will go away. So how will you deal with the changing conditions?

It's not been called the C-generation for nothing.

Journalists vs. bloggers
Professional designers vs. crowdsourcers
Small software firms vs. open source projects
Professional photographers vs. istockphoto et. al.

There are a whole host of battles between 'traditional professionals' vs. 'talented amateurs' and the landscape is changing because of it.

Regards,

Jason