Crowdsourcing is all the rage.
From micro-fundraising on Kickstarter.com to mapping craters on the Moon, people are coming up with creative ways to harness large groups of online volunteers. April's Internet Advocacy Roundtable featured speakers who’ve used crowdsourcing in some very creative ways to great effect.
Crowdsourcing is not just a new idea born out of social media. It has deep roots in social science research. Every time you read the results of a scientifically rigorous opinion poll, you are learning from the crowd. Large, probability samples of citizens can accurately tell us a lot about the opinions of the nation at large.
In the newest manifestations of crowdsourcing, we are turning to the crowd to create economies of scale for projects that can use large groups of people to do the work. Marty Kearns, of NetCentric Campaigns has long framed the challenge thusly: most organizations historically, would be unable to take advantage of 10,000 simultaneous volunteers. But with today’s social media tools, any organization can now turn those 10,000 volunteers into a productive force.
Watch April's Internet Advocacy Roundtable: "Crowdsource This… and That: Getting Creative with Crowdsourcing Strategy" to hear insights on crowdsourcing from some very smart people doing very interesting projects.
*Are you in DC on May 16th? RSVP for the next Internet Advocacy Roundtable: "Solving Your Biggest Social Media Headache: Integrating Social, Email & Your Website for Advocacy"
