Crowdsourcing…power to the masses

Until recently I was unaware of what crowdsourcing is. It can best be explained as : “A term that can be defined as outsourcing repetitive or challenging work to a large group of semi-organized individuals (a crowd) via the internet.”

 

Crowdsourcing is being employed more and more as we are shifting into web 3.0, which is based on the idea of the web focusing on the environment, as opposed to focusing on people  as in web 2.0. The basic idea behind crowdsourcing on the internet is that it’s allowing businesses to use web 2.0 tools to accumulate data and communicate with their customers or potential customers. This concept of   gathering data and ideas is now considered to be under the umbrella term “crowdsourcing.”  The company PurpleCar explains that crowdsourcing is a valuable asset to businesses for a variety of reasons and I will outline their 5 reported ways in which small businesses can crowdsource to boost business.

1. Start with your real life crowd: This means that small businesses should start with their immediate contacts. They should ask employees, friends, colleagues, or other contacts to add input into coming up with ideas or a solution to a particular problem.
2. Move to the web: This is where businesses should start focusing on their existing and potential markets. These businesses should start using web 2 tools to expand and search for new markets, but new markets that matter! An example of this is building a room on Twitter or employing a Facebook page to reach potential customers. The key here is to get new people involved and in conversation. Build a crowd. Then use this crowd. Help them with ideas, solutions, suggestions…they’ll do the same. Use web 2 tools to have conversations with other small businesses.
3. Employ a proper web search: Businesses should use the many resources available to them and search for available data on issue and industry specific problems.
4. Let information in: RSS feeds and alerts exist for a reason. Incoming information can provide many benefits to small businesses. Purplecar set up an alert so they will be notified whenever their company name is mentioned on the web. These alerts began to inform them when their company name made important lists or was honored by a certain publication. Had they not had the alert, they wouldn’t have known about the honorable mentions.
5. Read blogs: There are many insightful and useful blogs for small businesses. Start the communication!

Purplecar iterates that the above steps simply require “time and an internet connection.” All businesses can realise benefits from crowdsourcing…”The conversations are happening…jump in!”

Identi.ca: A Business perspective

In an earlier post, I provided the digitalorgs. community with a brief overview of Identi.ca and an example of our first “dent” as an enterprise 2.0 group. It will be interesting to see how we, as community can utilize Identi.ca as a collaborative tool. As this unit is centered around enterprise 2.0 and how businesses can profit from the emerging web 2 tools, I thought it would be beneficial to include a post which interrogates Identi.ca from a business perspective. The first issue to tackle here concerns Identi.ca and what sets it apart from its leading competitor…Twitter.

                         Vs.                                    

Lets begin by acknowledging that Twitter, of course does have a thriving community and even those who dislike Twitter appreciate the achievements which can be realised through the Twitter community.

What are the benefits of Identi.ca?

Identi.ca is an open source and open platform microblogging service which is only in its early stages. Edd Dumbill has identified some important reasons which explain Identi.ca’s value and uniqueness from Twitter. 

Open Source: Anyone can help develop Identi.ca by setting up their own “Laconica,” which is the underlying software. Identi.ca allows users to simply jump on the site and help enhance it into a bigger and better functioning service.

Open Data: The fact that the data can be shared is part of the communicative and collaborative nature of web 2.o.

It federates: ”Federation is one of the most enigmatic and exciting things about Identi.ca.” Dumbill explains that users can set up their own servers running the Laconica software, and still subscribe to people with accounts on Identi.ca’s server. Apart from the above features of Identi.ca, Dumbill expresses that users “have nothing to lose!”

In trying to determine the purpose and even future of microblogging in the corporate sphere, we should consider the following benefits:

• Quick communication amongst and across companies: “Employees would be able to quickly reply to colleagues regardless of the medium they use or their location for the purpose of doing things as simple as congratulating them on promotions, letting them feel more connected and part of their work-community. Smaller, more rapid communications can help to identify problems or opportunities more immediately.
• Flat communication: Communications from management that are delivered in a more organizationally flat method where employees can communicate respond through a broadcast method and be heard.
• Company Knowledge: Managers and teams could develop a better understanding of the work their team and coworkers actually do, letting mistaken ideas about processes be identified and a better understanding of obstacles be developed.

  Marina Martin of the “Oh, Identi.ca” blog was skeptical of microblogging in companies for the reason of ensuring that employees aren’t using work time to socialize with friends, however, she has changed her tune and has expressed a new found appreciation for microblogging…

• “…it’s a rare employee who isn’t *also* IMing their non-work friends (and no way to allow one and block the other); interactions are one-on-one; and there’s no corporate archiving of the information (GTalk archives don’t work well here). A Laconi.ca instance within a company would solve all of these problems – encourage community/teamwork, logging answers to questions and making them searchable, and allowing any employee to pose a question to the entire organization. As long as the nature of the platform is clear – that is, there’s no obligation to keep it open all day, respond to every message, or even the READ every message – I see it as a positive in many corporate environments.”

So, to sum up, it is understood that microblogging  in the corporate sphere can:

• Allow companies to have a structured message system via microblogging message indexed and searchable archives
• Enable the same level of utility as IM, but with built-in controls letting admins keep the communications inside the company.
• Offer companies a tracking tool of sorts

A glimpse into Identi.ca

How Web 2.0 will shape “Web Squared”

 We are all aware of the immense effect web 2.0 is having on our personal lives via social networking as well as the corporate domain. In his post, “The evolving web 2009: Web squared emerges to refine web 2.0,” Dion Hinchcliffe explains how web 2.0 has become “vital” to the future of “global culture and business.” He illustrates the power behind web 2 concepts which have shaped and developed things like product development and the future of government.

Today’s use of social networks has transformed media and software industries and the ascendancy of web 2 techniques such as “user-generated content, open business methods, enterprise 2.0 and open APIs” has been overwhelming. Hinchcliffe provides that deeper patterns and concepts are morphing from web 2 practices. Web 3.0 or, as Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle say, “web squared,” will operate largely on the fundamental concepts introduced from the original web 2.o. As we move into “web squared,” web 2.o ideas and strategies will remain as the basis of its foundation.

Interestingly, Hinchcliffe presents his concern that “social computing, the relentless growth of devices, network connectivity, and sensors into our lives across our homes, workplaces, and external environment is casting a growing “information shadow.” Basically, the network’s ability to dominate people’s online participation and contributions calls for the need for us to be “the feedback loop that guides web squared through billions of daily interactions.”

 Essentially…Web squared will be the full environment

Hinchcliffe clearly illustrates the distinction between web 1.0, web 2.0 and the emerging web squared. Check out his comparison table:

In acknowledging Hinchcliffe’s perceived view of web squared, I was referred to the enterprise 2.0 paradigm shift example. The shift from web 2 to web squared will certainly be influenced by and represent this paradigm shift which is expressed as;

• New wiring
• New thinking
• New way of seeing
• Different picture of a role
• Eyes opened

(Current way of thinking >>>>>New way of thinking)

In summary, web squared will be a worldly, autonomic environment maintained via real-time data ecosystems, which will generate from implied metadata of open supply chains, which could, in turn, cast information shadows.

In this post by Hinchcliffe I appreciate his honesty around the uncertainty of all that web squared will entail. It’s difficult to predict the nature of web squared which is why he urges readers to make comments and suggestions on web squared example applications and ideas.