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Apr 16 2008, 4:05 PM EDT crowdforum 246 words added
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This site is dedicated to the exchange of crowdsourcing knowledge and its practical application. We welcome anyone with a desire to learn about crowdsourcing to join us and contribute to the site.

Definition:

"The application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software."

From Jeff Howe, creator of the term

History

The process of gathering groups of people together and using their spare time and untapped knowledge to create something of value predates the term first coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article. Although crowdsourcing is the dominant phrase describing the practice; related terms include: peer production, wikinomics, crowdcasting, mass collaboration, wisdom of crowds, decision markets, and open source software.

Historical examples date back to the 1714 Longitude Prize , the 1847 Niagara Suspension Bridge contest and development of the Oxford English Dictionary. With the advent of modern computing, crowdsourcing experienced a Renaissance in the form of open source software. People who develop open source projects receive no pay for what they do but they derive satisfaction from the challenges and community of the open source experience. Now organizations outside the software industry are using crowdsourcing as a business practice. Modern day crowdsourcing is made possible by several societal shifts:

  • Market demands on innovation force companies to look outside their comfort zone (P&G, Lego).
  • Proliferation of open - collaborative vendor relationships (Toyota, Boeing, Lifen).
  • Proprietary systems have little value in the face of open source competitors (IBM “manages” patents, Amazon & Google open APIs). There are now options to government copyrights ©.
  • Presenteesim and the decline of corporate employment stability and benefits force talent into the open market.
  • Companies willingly cannibalize their value chains to own customer experience. If they don’t someone else will (Kimberly - Clark, WSJ, NY Times, iTunes).