Is that something you’ve said, or heard said in your company?    We’ve heard it from many of our clients and potential clients, and doubtless, most of us have experiences with collaboration attempts that started out OK, but somehow, well, fizzled out.

For example, perhaps someone set up a wiki for a group project.   People probably started piling stuff into it, but quickly it became disorganized, and hard to find what you wanted, so it fell into disuse and people went back to the old email-blast collaboration technique.   Or perhaps you had an idea management tool that was designed to capture everyone’s new ideas whenever they had them.  But it was always unclear what, if anything, happened to the ideas, so again, people stopped using it.

We’ve heard all these stories and many more, and often get asked “how is crowdsourced collaboration different?”  The answer is in the process.  If you’ve followed Chaordix, or attended any of our webinar series, you know we believe strongly that the crowdsourcing model, or process, that is applied for a specific crowdsourcing objective is as important as, if not more important than, the technology that supports it.

Successful crowdsourcing is way more than just getting people to suggest ideas to a common online area.    It’s a well thought-out (ahead of time!) process where there are specific stages of idea submission, enhancement, and selection by the crowd, a panel, or combinations of both.   It requires having specific goals for the crowd to accomplish.  It involves communication mechanism that provide just the right amount of information to keep people in the loop and participating, without overwhelming them.  It incorporates incentives that make participating rewarding and fun.   And its also about making the goal, process and incentives transparent, so everyone knows how it’s going to work, how long it’s going to take and what the outcome is going to be.  It’s about getting the crowd to collaborate with a specific purpose in a specific period of time, with a technology platform and moderation that provide the essential ingredients.

Successful collaboration doesn’t happen by just bringing people together and saying “collaborate”.  Successful collaboration happens by good design, knowledgeable implementation and ongoing moderation/oversight.

And the best part is, it feeds on itself.  If you run a successful crowdsourcing engagement, and the crowd sees the progress and results,  the crowd members are that much more motivated to participate again, and again.

So, if you’ve tried collaboration technologies in the past and they haven’t worked out the way you thought they would, think about why they might have failed and think about the process used (or lack thereof).   But certainly, don’t assume that crowdsourcing is the same.    Crowdsourced collaboration, implemented correctly,  is truly different (and it works.)

Those of you who have been following Chaordix know we worked with our partners 100% Open and Orange last fall on a crowdsourcing project called “Mobile Volunteering” in which we asked the crowd to brainstorm ways in which mobile devices could help people volunteer their time in five minutes or less, when they are on the go. There were hundreds of great ideas submitted and thousands of participants.

Orange just launched the results of that crowd enagement in a free iPhone app called Do Some Good which has 12 of the top ideas that came from the Mobile Volunteering crowd. We think it’s a great example of how crowdsourcing can help fast-forward new product/service innovation. And in this case, the application really fosters crowdsourced volunteering, by encouraging lots of people to donate small amounts of time, for example while they are waiting for their bus, or riding the train to work. In aggregate, all of those small contributions can add up to make a huge difference.

The Do Some Good app is available now from the iPhone App Store, and in the future will be on Android, Blackberry and Nokia. Definitely check out and download Do Some Good and tell your friends to join the crowd.

So, we’re not all that surprised to see Pepsi Refresh in the news again, only this time with allegations of voting fraud, as covered in The New York Times.

If you’ve been following Pepsi Refresh since the beginning, you remember that it was initially conceived as an alternative to doing Super Bowl ads.  In other words, it was conceived as a marketing and awareness program.  And most of the articles I’ve read mention that the program has been a “huge” success, not only because they’ve given away more than $20M to charities,  but because,  as Fast Company put it last week,   “Pepsi has received more positive PR than it ever could have by spending the same amount of money on advertising.”

Now don’t get me wrong.  I think it’s wonderful for a company to build its brand and get market awareness for doing good and being socially responsible.    Throughout the Refresh program though,  I’ve wondered if Pepsi has put enough thought into where the money goes, how it’s used, or even if it’s given fairly.

To do crowdsourcing “right”, it’s critical to care about the outcome and make it priority number one.   Also, if you run a campaign with a big prize you must recognize that, unfortunately, there is high likelihood that someone will try to game the outcome, and be prepared beforehand, not scramble to cover after the fact.

It’s important to care about the outcome because the entire design and execution of the campaign flows from there.  We always start by identifying the desired output from the crowd and work backward to design.  It just doesn’t work to do it any other way.  The model you use, the incentives, the crowd you engage, and many other considerations all flow from the desired outcome.

When it comes to gaming, your technology should have safeguards in place and reporting alerts to identify any suspicious activity so you can address immediately.  Yes, with good data access you can always eliminate the votes of suspected “gamers”, but its always better to nip it in the bud and either prevent gaming altogether or eliminate it when it starts.

One of the most fundamental concepts of crowdsourcing is that crowds can be remarkably intelligent.  So, if the playing field isn’t level for your crowdsourcing campaign, you should count on your crowd figuring out that it isn’t.    Better yet, make sure your campaign is designed right up front, with the right safeguards in place to help ensure that the playing field is level, otherwise it might come back to haunt you.  Pepsi might be finding this out the hard way, again.

Originally posted at 100% Open.

We are excited to announce that we are launching our latest project with Orange called Mobile Volunteering which brings together a healthy and expert mix of technology developers and social entrepreneurs and NGOs.

On the site we are creating everyday opportunities for social action, kick-starting a new movement. Through an app on their mobile phone, people could for example volunteer to map and tag wildlife photos, make an audio map for the blind, or complete a charity’s survey. Imagine the potential of millions of people regularly contributing in this way.

The project itself is an collaboration between Orange, Chaordix, 100%Open and Good Business which has been lots of fun so far too. See below a short video about the project.

Else do keep an eye out on the site and start sharing and building your ideas or apps.

As the G8/G20 Summit approaches with a theme of saving the lives of women and children, Chaordix™ works with Oxford University to find ways to deliver safe and effective medical care to women worldwide

Launched this week, Global Voices for Maternal Health gives doctors, nurses and midwives worldwide a voice in how best to provide care to pregnant women in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Hosted by Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Global Voices enables people on the maternal healthcare frontlines to discuss the problems faced, and identify healthcare solutions to decrease the number of women dying unnecessarily in childbirth every year.

Maternal Health is a global focus right now. Working with Oxford on this project means we’re doing what we can to contribute to finding ways to deliver safe and effective medical care to more women worldwide. We’ve observed with concern that Canada seems to be backpedaling in our support of family planning initiatives in developing nations. By applying crowdsourcing to advance maternal health, we are standing up alongside leaders such as Melinda Gates and Hillary Clinton in bringing awareness to this issue.

The Chaordix powered community – Global Voices for Maternal Health – aims to give thousands of midwives, nurses and doctors around the world a direct voice about the problems they face in delivering lifesaving maternal healthcare. Dozens of topics will be broadcast to healthcare practitioners to provoke innovative methods to overcome maternal health barriers.

For view-only access to the crowdsourcing forum, please go to: http://forum.globalvoices.org.uk/

About Global Voices

Global Voices for Maternal Health is a ground-breaking new project that will give over 10,000 midwives, nurses and doctors around the world a direct voice about the problems they face in delivering lifesaving maternal healthcare. The project is being carried out by the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford, with the support of the Maternal Health Task Force of EngenderHealth. To take part in the project, please go to: http://globalvoices.org.uk/.

Chaordix is looking to hire again. We’ve been enjoying some successes – working with great clients who are keeping us busy. By expanding our team, we hope to be able to deliver even more without compromising the high quality of work we’re proud to produce. If you know of anyone you think might be a perfect fit for our team, please get in touch!

Currently, we’re looking for the right people to fill positions across client delivery, product development and community management.

What’s involved with working for Chaordix? Well, we value curiosity, courageous thinking and initiative! We applaud people with a roll-up-the-sleeves attitude and thank them accordingly. Please send all resumes to iseemyself@chaordix.com

Photo by: Dunechaser

Landing the job here at Chaordix just a month after graduating from SAIT’s now renamed Computer Technology course means while I’m no longer the newest members of the team, I’m still one of the freshest. Although I was looking more to get a job than to find a ‘home,’ I was lucky to find both a year ago. What a year it has been.

Before I started here I had never heard of crowdsourcing, I had filled out surveys in hopes of winning tuition money in school and done ‘grass roots’ surveys at previous jobs, but crowdsourcing…no clue. My first step was to figure out how people used crowdsourcing, which was good, because I had one of the best tools for that right in front of me, the code for the Cambrian House website, all of its communities and for Chaordix. We all work at one big table, so sitting around listening to all of the conversations about different crowdsourcing projects was a big help as well.

Once I had a good handle on what crowdsourcing can be used for, the next step was getting to know the code itself. We have a pretty powerful platform and that means lots of complex code when you are just getting started. On top of that I learned Java in school and here, we use PHP.  While both are Object Oriented languages there are subtle nuances that took a while to get up to speed on. The development team here has been more than willing to offer their help in growing me as a developer.

Now the process is coming full circle, we have a new member of our development team, and hopefully more in the near future. I’m looking forward to seeing someone else go through the same steps and challenges that I did. I’m also hoping this time through, I’ll be able to give some help, since I know all to well how it feels to be just starting out.

We called our crowdsourcing platform Chaordix as a salute to Dee Hock, the founder/creator and former CEO of the VISA credit card association. He coined the term to describe the dynamic tension he’d set up in Visa: encourage as much competition and initiative as possible throughout the organization — “chaos” — while building in mechanisms for cooperation — “order.”

When we talk about crowdsourcing, we consider the same principles that Hock considered when creating what would become VISA. These principles are the foundation for any chaordic organization:

• What if ownership was in the form of irrevocable right of participation, rather than stock: rights that could not be rated, traded, bought, or sold but only acquired through application or acceptance of membership?
• What if it were self organizing, with participants having the right to self organize at any time, for any reason, at any scale, with irrevocable rights of participation in governance at any greater scale?
• What if power and function were distributive, with no power vested in or function performed by any part that could reasonably exercised by any more peripheral part?
• What if governance was distributive, with no individual, institution, or combination of either or both, particularly management, able to dominate deliberations or control decisions at any scale?
• What if it could seamlessly blend cooperation and competition, with all parts free to compete in unique, independent ways, yet able to yield self interests and cooperate when necessary to the good of the whole?
• What if it were infinitely malleable, yet extremely durable, with all parts capable of constant, self generated, modification of form or function without sacrificing its essential purpose, nature, or embodied principle, thus releasing human ingenuity and spirit?

Instead of trying to enforce cooperation by restricting what the members can do, the Visa bylaws encourage them to compete and innovate as much as possible. “Members are free to create, price, market, and service their own products under the Visa name,” he says. “At the same time, in a narrow band of activity essential to the success of the whole, they engage in the most intense cooperation.” This harmonious blend of cooperation and competition is what allowed the system to expand worldwide in the face of different currencies, languages, legal codes, customs, cultures, and political philosophies.

It’s a shift and one that is easier for some industries over others, but Dee Hock’s message is inspiring. Instead of looking to crowdsourcing as something that is taking away power, look to it as something that is enabling innovation – a complex balance of collaboration and competition bringing us new ideas.

To read more, pick up Dee Hock’s book, Birth of the Chaordic Age

As one of the newest members to join the Chaordix team, I’m pretty excited to be a) joining such an innovative team and b) writing my very first blog – I know, I know, welcome to 1999, population: me

Also, I’m also pretty thrilled to be entering the realm of Crowdsourcing – which is totally new to me, and what a cool environment to soak it all in. Here are two things I really like about Chaordix:

1.)   How many companies let ALL their employees do their own blog entries, on topics of their choice? It’s nice to work in a place where all different perspectives are valued.

2.)   Random facts…I’ve never worked at a company where people know so many random facts. We could play a great game of Trivial Pursuit.

Over the past few weeks, I have come across some resources (internally and externally) that have helped me wrap my head around what exactly “crowdsourcing” (also referred to by many as “open innovation”) is, and how companies are finding great success through calls to a group of contributors (a crowd) asking for their input.

I thought it might be helpful to share a couple of the discoveries I’ve had along the way – for any other “newbies” out there – just starting to grasp this concept.

Not to brag or anything, but our Chaordix website has tons of great resources. Check out the case studies…here you’ll find some examples of how well-known companies have used crowdsourcing, and provides a useful breakdown of their purpose, call, model, incentives, promotion and more. You’ll also learn how we’ve ranked these initiatives based on the elements mentioned above. I found these interesting and useful!

I’ll be writing more case studies and as I was researching, I came across a little company you might have heard of…Pepsi, and their project, the Pepsi Refresh Project. It’s a pretty great reference in terms of the end user’s perspective. Enjoy!

Chaordix relies on crowds to strengthen our business too! Whether you are familiar with crowdsourcing or looking to contribute by joining an innovative team, Chaordix offers great opportunities for people looking to be part of something cool. ]]> http://www.chaordix.com/2010/01/new-kid-on-the-crowdsourcing-block/feed/ 0 http://www.chaordix.com/2010/01/zen-coding-lightspeed-ahead/ http://www.chaordix.com/2010/01/zen-coding-lightspeed-ahead/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:02:35 +0000 Colin Sproule http://www.chaordix.com/blog/?p=473

I made a New Years resolution to give the Zen Coding plugin a try in an attempt to speed up html/css markup. We do a lot of in browser design and prototyping with markup at Chaordix so any increase in efficiency is a boon.

Zen Coding was created by Sergey Chikuyonok to allow elegant css style syntax for quickly constructing html and css markup. Before I go any further let me demonstrate what constructing a chunk of html with Zen Coding looks like.

ul#my-list>li.item-$*3>a

Zen Coding takes the above line and transforms it into this:

Okay, so that was pretty cool but anyone who writes code everyday can probably pump that out with a serious of shortcuts in their editor of choice. Let’s go overboard a little and show some power.

html:xt>div#container>div#header>div#logo+ul#nav>li.item-$*5>a

magically becomes:

The input to output ratio is huge. While impressive it’s really only useful if the syntax is easy to learn and construct. In my experience the learning curve has been steep and I was up and running in no time. Let’s walk through the syntax for the first example in this post to demonstrate how simple it really is.

ul#my-list>li.item-$*3>a

We can break this down very easily. Let’s start with how the list and it’s list items are created.

ul#my-list

becomes

and

li.item

becomes

At this point things should feel pretty familiar to writing CSS. let’s add some of the fun stuff.

ul#my-list>li.item*3

Using > we are have specified that the list items are inside the unordered list. We’ve then tacked *3 onto the list items telling Zen coding to multiply the number by three. Now let’s finish it off.

ul#my-list>li.item-$*3>a

We have now used -$ to increase the number on the class name of each list item and used > again to specify a link inside each of these list items.

Alright, reading through that it may feel like a lot of mental math just to output some HTML but once you get started it’s easy and dare I say addictive. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be coding at warp speed!

Zen Coding supports a number of text editors and includes plugins for both HTML and CSS.

Checkout these links if you want to Learn more about Zen Coding:

• Zen Coding on Google Code
• Try a Zen Coding demo online
• Video demo of Zen Coding

photo by H. Koppdelaney