Crowdsourcing

I recently had the opportunity to read Jeff Howe’s Crowdsourcing (Random House Business Books 2008). I was interested in this topic from reading Jeff’s initial thoughts on the subject in Wired Magazine in 2006. Crowdsourcing is the idea that digital interconnectivity gives businesses access to a wide range of amateur talent: talent that can perform the same work as a professional but at a substantially lower cost and potentially faster time frame. The amateur’s ability to compete on a professional level is possible through digital connectivity, the inexpensiveness of personal computers, and a generational affluence with digital media. In the book, Howe investigates through a myriad of examples how the means of production are shifting from the corporate megalopolises to the SOHO’s of small private entrepreneurs, and discusses how the crowd – electronic social communities – directs demand, can do knowledge-based work faster and more efficiently than monster organizations, and shapes innovation.

Howe’s book is a good read for two people: people who own businesses and people who are employees of those who own businesses. Put another way, this book is great for both parties to understand just one of the dynamics affecting the changing nature of work.  In one respect, the employer needs to be conscious of new ways to attract qualified labor at reduced cost, whereas in another respect, the employee should be conscious of their options in a digital marketplace of ideas; further, the employer should also be cognizant of the employee’s emerging options and motivations.  In Howe’s conclusion in chapter 11, his “Rules of Crowdsourcing”, he writes: “Another way of thinking about this is that successful crowdsourcing involves satisfying the uppermost tier on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. People are drawn to participate because some psychological, social, or emotional need is being met.” I think what he’s saying here is that the “wage-slave” is getting an opportunity to re-frame what constitutes “work” and “reward” – it doesn’t have to be entirely about the paycheck. No longer does work need to be about the corner office, or, the “Director”-level parking space. Work can be just as much about supporting a lifestyle as much as living an ideal, or, converting play and passtime into a means of financial support.  Work might not even pay very much. In fact, a majority of future “work” may even be done for free.

In my line of work, I’ve seen the small business owner tap into a ready-pool of laborers responding to a Craigslist ad. Instead of investing in long-term variable employee expenses, the business owner enters into contained-cost, short term contracts, gets the job done, and dismisses the labor. Naturally, I participate in this kind of activity myself when I’m asked to put a database together at the lowest possible bid on guru.com, and through my providing free content across my website. And I’ve seen consumers gain access to professional advice and services using the web that would normally be unattainable. There are boundless opportunities in the new economy and they are totally contrary to our rational line of thinking.

• What? There’s job security found in the insecurity of contract labor? Yes!
• There’s an ROI for offering professional services for practically free – and it may not even be measured in dollars? Yes!
• There’s more value in earning trust/interpersonal relationships than money?  Yes!

What books like Crowdsourcing do is that they force the reader to consider the world as it’s moving around them. You can look at these changes as catastrophic – the “end of work, the rise of socialism” as some might espouse, or, a remarkable time of reinvention that has the potential to totally redefine our understanding of living. Both the capitalist and the laborer, the manufacturer and the consumer, have new options, new motivations, and new instincts – Crowdsourcing reveals a world swirling around us that we may either embrace or ignore: to gain significant competitive and emotional advantage, or, to be at once the victim of broader macroeconomic change. It’s a great read for students and entrepreneurs alike.

R

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