Crowd + Outsourcing?
Dear Friends,
I’d like to talk to you about the meaning of crowdsourcing.
If you’ve had the opportunity to read my last post about open innovation, you’ll certainly understand that crowdsourcing is a concept that goes with it, side by side.
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines crowdsourcing as “the practice of obtaining need services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and specially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.”
A very simple obvious idea! Crowd + Outsourcing!
Innovation specialists such as Paul Hobcraft or Braden Kelley have bethought through this concept and got to broaden its meaning and use to the innovation semantic:
“Crowdsourcing is the practice of engaging a ‘crowd’ or group for a common goal – often innovation, problem-solving or efficiency. Crowdsourcing may work at many different levels and across various industries (social and governmental). Thanks to our growing connectivity, it is now easier than ever for individuals to collectively contribute – whether with ideas, time, expertise or funds – to a project or cause. This collective mobilisation is crowdsourcing.”
“Crowds are a hit. Millions of people, connected by the internet, are contributing ideas and information to projects big and small. Crowdsourcing, as it is called, is helping to solve tricky problems and providing localised information. And with the right knowledge, contributing to the crowd – and using its wisdom – is easier than ever.”
From the New York Times, referenced by Paul Hobcraft on Innovation Excellence’s website
“Successful organizations have a plan for how they are going to interface with external resources and how they are going to bring ideas and potential solutions in house for further development and launch. What will the cultural obstacles be? You must consider what the potential cultural obstacles might be to engaging external talent in your organization.”
By Braden Kelley, on Innovation Excellence’s website.
InoCrowd’s very name results from the words “Innovation” and “Crowd” put together. The main objective is further interaction between organisations and solvers, providing a fruitful relationship through “Open Innovation” and “CrowdSourcing”.
Kind Regards,
Soraya Gadit