We powered PwC’s Digital Compass call on how Canada can lead in a digital economy. I’m really interested in the topic, so I spent a good amount of time in there reading the ideas, commenting and voting. The campaign lasted for 7 weeks, with 6 calls (one a week) and then a week long showdown.

It just finished Tuesday, with the top 3 idea submitters getting passes to the Canada3.0 conference in Ontario. For more information on how it worked, watch for our upcoming interview with PwC. In the meantime, here are some of the things I thought were interesting about crowdsourcing a call like this:

-          Time well spent. Compared to other solution hunt projects, PwC had high participation. The effort it took to stop, come up with an idea that could improve Canada’s digital economy and then write it down was a lot to ask of people. Yet 73 ideas were thoughtfully submitted.

-          Not a popularity contest. Community members that actively recruited their friends seem no more likely to receive votes. Before anyone could vote, they had to sign up and then hit the list of all ideas. It seems as though this extra step meant that friends voted for what they thought was the best idea. As people took an interest in the topic, the quality of submissions and comments remained high.

-          Improving quality of life. In Canada, we’re concerned about healthcare The idea on Digital Health Care took home the most votes. I think this is indicative of how the nation feels right now. Technology and gadgets are cool, but now we want to see practical applications for them that really improve our lives.

We’ll see organizations use crowdsourcing to innovate and advance more and more in the future. It can engage a crowd for breakthrough ideas, production of technology or products and problem solving that is impossible using internal employees alone. We’re hoping our upcoming project we’re working on with Oxford will bring us closer to solving some of those problems, specifically around delivering lifesaving maternal healthcare. Stay tuned for more details!

photo by: dancoulter

Today, we were announced as a winner of the 4^th Annual WorldBlu Most Democratic Workplaces Award. As Canadians, it isn’t really in our nature to brag, but we’re one of only 44 companies including Zappos, Meetup, and the Grammy® Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, based in New York City. That’s a pretty lofty crowd!

The WorldBlu survey, evaluates an organization’s practice of ten democratic principles, including: transparency, integrity, dialogue and listening, accountability and choice on leadership, individual, systems, and processes.

Since openness is at the core of what we do, it makes sense that we work in a very democratic fashion. In the arena of crowdsourcing, we see firsthand the value of inviting input from diverse and passionate people. We share our vision and invite everyone on our team to challenge and strengthen how we operate, what we strive for and where we need to go next. The freedom to influence our organization comes with accountability to help us lead every day. We’re honored to be recognized for our efforts by WorldBlu.

The great thing about SxSW is that it isn’t just one conference, it’s three. It gives one a new perspective to be surrounded by people who have interests outside of technology and innovation. Meeting with film and media leaders helped me see some of the challenges they are facing and got my wheels turning about how crowdsourcing could be applied in industries we don’t typically focus on. It also helped remind me how important it is to interact with smart people from various backgrounds – really, what crowdsourcing is all about! Here are three things I learned from attending SxSW this year:

You don’t go to SxSW to learn about your industry – As there’s so many people there, most of whom have no idea what you do, any panel on your industry will probably be pretty high level. That’s cool. Take this opportunity to learn what’s going on with other people. Catch up on areas that are adjacent to what you do, or complimentary to what you do. You never know what might spark a great business opportunity. While I love attending the crowdsourcing sessions and the speakers were incredibly engaging, people like Scott Belsky and Jeffrey Kalmikoff confirmed what I already know and didn’t really dive into new territory.

It’s all about location – Location based apps are still where it’s at, not matter what industry you are in. There was a definite battle between Gowalla and Foursquare for conference attendees. Which app did most users go with? Which party did most people attend? With so much going on and so many people to catch up with, I ended up having multiple apps on my phone to keep track of where I should be going next. If it’s all about the crowd, knowing where the crowd is and what the crowd thinks is hot is key.

Zone Bars are horrible - Everywhere I went, I was handed a Zone Bar (extremely dry, meal replacement bars). That’s great they were willing to sponsor the conference so much, but zone bars taste awful! I think this is an important lesson on brand engagement. Whether it’s crowdsourcing, social media, or word of mouth marketing, make sure you are spending dollars on campaigns and communities that will appreciate your product. I can’t imagine Zone Bars will notice an increase in sales after all of the effort they dumped into SxSW. A far better option for them would have been to hand out zone bars at a track and field competition, or maybe along the running paths during the summer.

All in all, SxSW was great. I heard from a number of industry thought leaders, introduced friends from all over the world to each other and made a bunch of new contacts I’m looking forward to following up with. I only with I could have stayed for the cool bands.

It’s been noted that over 2009, Wikipedia lost over 49,000 editors. According to a study by Felipe Ortega, from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, the year prior saw a loss of only 4,900 editors. What does this mean? Are people losing interest in Wikipedia, one of the top 10 website in the world? Considering most students can no longer write a paper without citing Wikipedia, should we be alarmed? What if Wikipedia dies?

Wikipedia says it is nowhere near this. They point out that Mr. Ortega raises valid challenges for Wikipedia in the future, but his numbers are off. Details aside, how many editors does Wikipedia need at this point?

Back in 2001, Wikipedia needed content, but that was years ago. Now, everything you can think of has an entry. Is it possible that we simply don’t need as many editors any more? Perhaps the time has come for experts on different subjects to review and improve the content that is already there.

Whether there is a decline in editors, or the numbers are holding steady, we don’t see this as a negative sign for Wikipedia, we just think of it as an evolution. At almost ten years old, it is a great example of the wisdom of crowds and how that collective intelligence can be used. It will be interesting to see how the next few years unfold for Wikipedia.

After reading “The Scary Economics of Crowdsourcing” posted by Phil Wainewright over at eBizQ, I’ve been thinking about why people are so concerned at the prospect of crowdsourcing. Do they think it is so powerful that crowdsourcing will be the only way of work in the future or is this just sensationalized journalism?

Here at Chaordix, we always talk about crowdsourcing in a positive way – enabling faster innovation, deeper brand engagement, community development – but we see what people worry about as well. We understand the fear, but disagree with some of the logic. Here are some arguments on crowdsourcing discussions gone awry:

1. Crowdsourcing will get all of your work done for free. There is no way to trick the time/money graph. Whether you are Netflix with a million dollars kicking around, or a small startup without the cash to hire someone to design a logo for you, the graph still applies. The rumor that you’ll get a massive crowd to complete all of your work for your business, for free is not true. For example, The Guardian was able to quickly get through massive amounts of data by asking its readers to go through documents, but without having some type of incentive, people were not willing to invest very much time into it. After the initial push, it stalled.
2. Crowdsourcing will destroy corporate structure. While crowdsourcing can help find new solutions in unexpected places, it won’t be the end of business as we know it. Crowdsourcing gives mangers and executives access to more data, people and options than before, but all companies still need people to bring it all together. What we learned from our original crowdsourcing community, IdeaWarz, is that you cannot crowdsource a founding team. Experienced leaders are still key to any successful endeavor. A successful leader will recognize that they might not have all of the answers, but the experience to find and implement them.
3. Crowdsourcing is threatening my job. Unlikely, if you are good at what you do. Crowdsourcing is the democratization of talent. Yes, the new kid fresh out of school can make a logo or write a few lines of code for way cheaper than you, but this frees you up to do more involved, more complex work. Think about the attending/resident relationship of doctors. There will never be a world where we don’t need people with experience to guide people just learning. Instead of thinking about crowdsourcing as some young, inexperienced punks taking your job, why not look at crowdsourcing as a way to promote your experience – either through being a mentor to fresh ideas without experience, or as the “expert” who helps guide the decision making process?

Implementing crowdsourcing isn’t a magical solution for everything – it requires a combination of easy to use technology and thorough planning. As with any other business initiative, it has to be a good fit for the end goal. While we believe it represents an exciting opportunity for new innovation and open conversations, we don’t believe all the hype – just the facts.

Photo by kiki99