February 14, 2015
Crowdsourcing is an interesting phenomena brought about by internet communities. From my perspective, it’s akin to niche communities of people who get together, typically within a local area or neighborhood. What the internet has brought forward is the ability for users with even more specialized interests or stronger niches can connect virtually to spur or promote a common interest or idea.
The article about the Kickstarter potato salad project was news to me, but almost fits into recent tech lore, as even parodied on shows like the Big Bang Theory. It doesn’t entirely surprise me that the project founder received nearly $60K in pledges, given it’s food related, it’s on a very popular platform, and the topic is just quirky enough to gain interest in non-enthusiasts.
The article related to Wikipedia and the role of a brand in managing its organizations information and content was intriguing. Years back I attempted to make a similar adjustment on behalf of the not-for-profit I worked for to update their membership total. It was revised back, at which point I somewhat gave up. Overall, it appears that Wikipedia places value on the users of first-person sources, versus the first-person sources themselves.
One area of crowdsourcing that’s intrigued me has been in the recent advances of 3-D printing. As consumers of low-cost 3-D printers create files, they can share them with other printer owners to then modify or recreate the print job on their own device. In looking for additional information, I found an article on an attempt to connect all 3-D printers to a network whereas users with a need to print a custom 3-D object could send the job via the network to an available printer with yield/capacity, and have that item delivered to them, either within their company or for a fee. It makes crowdsourcing a nearly tangible reality for almost everyone.
Questions
3D printing, Crowdsourcing, Shared Knowledge, Wikipedia,