Crowdsourcing - the Power of Crowd

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6/25/13 Crowdsourcing, Collective Intelligence, and Funder Decision-Making | Open Gifts Open Gifts REFLECTIONS ON PHILANTHROPY, FUNDER NETWORKS , AND S OCIAL CHANGE Crowdsourcing, Collective Intelligence, and Funder Decision-Making CROWDSOURCING, COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE, AND INFORMATION FOR FUNDER DECISION-MAKING (http://kathysessions.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/crowdsourcing-collective-intelligence-and-information-for-funderdecision-making.pdf) (link to a PDF copy of this essay) Crowdsourcing is attracting more and more buzz. Every time I consult Wikipedia’s entry on crowdsourcing, I notice new edits — a sign of how much interest, experimentation, and definitional debate there is in the idea of opening up projects to, literally, everyone. For me the “honey in the buzz” about crowdsourcing is some compelling analysis of where and how “outsourcing to the crowd” can enrich information for decision-making, scale up engagement, and improve problem-solving. Among the interesting and accessible books on crowdsourcing are The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe. (Howe coined the term “crowdsourcing” in a 2006 article in Wired magazine.)[i] About crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing can take various forms, including four described by Jeff Howe: Collective intelligence, sometimes termed “the wisdom of crowds.” This refers to mechanisms for drawing in and aggregating input from a crowd to better understand a problem or identify a potential solution. An example of crowdsourced intelligence would be an information market. kathysessions.wordpress.com/open-gifts-2/crowdsourcing-collective-intelligence-and-funder-decision-making/ 1/9 6/25/13 Crowdsourcing, Collective Intelligence, and Funder Decision-Making | Open Gifts Creative content, in which many people can contribute
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