Summary: Crowdsourcing E-Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Herausgeber: Business Book Summaries
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 37

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

The must-read summary of Jeff Howe's book: "Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business". 

This complete summary of the ideas from Jeff Howe's book "Crowdsourcing" explains that “crowdsourcing” is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by a designated agent (such as an employee or a contractor) and outsourcing it by making an open call to an undefined but large group of people. In fact, crowdsourcing allows the power of the crowd to accomplish tasks that were once the province of just a specialised few. Or to put it another way, crowdsourcing is to take the principles which have worked for open source software projects and apply them right across the entire spectrum of the business world.

Added-value of this book:
• Save time
• Understand the key concepts 
• Increase your business knowledge 

To learn more, read "Crowdsourcing" and discover why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business.

Leseprobe

Book Presentation: Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe

Summary of Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe)

Book Presentation: Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe

Book Abstract

MAIN IDEA

“Crowdsourcing” is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by a designated agent (such as an employee or a contractor) and outsourcing it by making an open call to an undefined but large group of people. Crowdsourcing allows the power of the crowd to accomplish tasks that were once the province of just a specialized few. Or to put it another way, crowdsourcing is to take the principles which have worked for open source software projects and apply them right across the entire spectrum of the business world.

“Crowdsourcing has the potential to correct a long-standing human conundrum. The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the numerous members of our species has always vastly outstripped our capacity to harness those invaluable quantities. Instead, it withers on the vine for want of an outlet. Crowdsourcing is the mechanism by which such talent and knowledge is matched to those in need of it. It poses a tantalizing question: What if the solutions to our greatest problems weren’t waiting to be conceived, but already existed somewhere, just waiting to be found, in the warp and weave of this vibrant human network”?

– Jeff Howe

About the Author

JEFF HOWE is a contributing editor at Wired magazine. He has been a professional journalist for fifteen years and has been a senior editor at Inside.com as well as a writer at the Village Voice. In his current assignment with Wired magazine, Mr. Howe covers the entertainment industry and other subjects. Mr. Howe’s articles have been published in the U.S. News & World Report, Time magazine, the Washington Post, Mother Jones and various other publications.

The Web site for this book is at www.crowdsourcing.com.

Important Note About This Ebook

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.

Summary of Crowdsourcing (Jeff Howe)

The Past – How did we get to where we now are with the concept of crowdsourcing?

Four fundamental developments have created an environment where crowdsourcing is not only feasible but inevitable. Those four developments are:

A renaissance of amateurismThe emergence of the open source software movementThe increasing availability of the tools of productionThe rise of vibrant self-organized communities focused around people’s shared interests

When combined together, these four developments provide the fuel for the crowdsourcing engine and have created a true meritocracy.

1. A renaissance of amateurism

Once upon a time, being a professional photographer was highly lucrative. The equipment required to produce high-quality images was expensive and therefore whoever made that kind of investment in the tools of their trade had to be reasonably serious. Digital cameras which can produce high-resolution images and the availability of companies like iStockphoto have completely changed that dynamic.

iStockphoto markets and sells images over the Internet. It offers for sale the images produced by more than 50,000 photographers, almost all of them amateurs. Whereas traditional photo agencies charged high fees for images, many of iStock’s images sell for around $1 each. The company has crowdsourced its stock, dramatically undercut its competitors and in the process made a killing for itself.

Similar examples of amateurs who can and do work to what were previously considered professional standards is actually quite common today. A new breed of amateurs has arisen – people who are knowledgeable, educated, committed and networked. Crowdsourcing directly attracts this new breed of amateurs who typically have two shared attributes:

These are people who are not primarily motivated by money directly, although they’re happy to make a few extra bucks if the chance arises.These are also the kind of people who are working on their own dime and who dedicate their leisure time to something they feel passionate about, something they love to do rather than have to do.

This is at least part of the reason why YouTube has more than 80 million videos and why even a Web site like HarryPotterFanFiction.com can boast more than 45,000 stories written by Harry Potter fans. It’s also the reason why Etsy.com generated more than $27 million in revenue in 2008 by helping people buy and sell homemade items.