Crowd Sourcing Project

It was just another day on the job. As a Project Manager I pick up a project, find resources, get the thing going, deliver on time and within budget and end of deal. Seemed to be true for this project.

However, it turned out to be a success (wow, how's that for a change?). The project received national media attention, was mentioned in the weblog of the parting Dutch Minister of Finance and suddenly became a Crowd Sourcing showcase. For those who're new to this, here's the Wikinition:

"Crowdsourcing" is a neologism for a business model that depends on work being done outside the traditional company walls: while outsourcing is typically performed by lower paid professionals, crowdsourcing relies on a combination of volunteers and low-paid amateurs who use their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D. The term was coined by Wired magazine writer Jeff Howe and editor Mark Robinson in June 2006.

Now, what's the big fuzz?
Crowd Sourcing is big business for companies. Let's start simple. A large company changes name and starts a contest for a new slogan and the winner receives a luxurious Holiday in Spain. That's a good deal for the winner, yet a better deal for the company since it saves thousands of euro's otherwise spent on expensive Marketing & Advertising companies.

In short, Crowd Sourcing is a money saver. It allows businesses to gain expert opinion free of charge (or at extremely low charge, a nice incentive).

Additional Resources:

• Wikipedia: Crowd Sourcing
• Wired: The rise of crowdsourcing
• Business Week: Crouwdsourcing: Consumers as creators