Week 2 - Completed

Week 2 has been successful. I'm interested in crowdsourcing and plan to continue thinking about how I can implement into my own company. I'm in plumbing and HVAC construction so it's not immediately clear to me what task we could use crowdsourcing to accomplish.

I encourage everyone to check out a site called vidit.fm. The site takes various videos (concerts, sports, games, etc) from various users and pieces them together to create the best possible video. Very cool concept and it utilizes crowdsourcing.

In terms of completed work I read:

• The Dawn of the Human Network
• Building Your Startup Without Building Code - I like articles like this, am going to try out 99designs for an upcoming project. 
• The Internet Before Search Engines
• The Social Marketing Playbook
• Crowdsourcing Challenges

Videos Completed: 

• Crowdsourcing Evolution

Do's and Don'ts of Crowdsourcing

My experience with crowdsourcing is limited and pretty much non-existence prior to this week's readings. I've of course heard the terms used several times over the years and have heard the success stories of companies like Threadless. But, in wrapping up this week's videos and readings I did a bit of my own crowdsource reading. I came upon an interesting article which summarizes the best and worst aspects of crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing Challenges: by Lukas Biewald

Pros: It's like a free work force. Companies can successfully have others do their work and build brand awareness at the same time. Take Facebook for example who in redesigning their website to be user friendly in other languages did so by letting users vote and make changes to the site. Another example would be Reddit who allows user to flag, and have removed, inappropriate content. I know that sites such as Craiglist, Ebay, and Yelp use a similarly crowdsourced method of keeping their content relevant and "professional"

Cons: The cons to crowdsourcing are various. Perhaps the biggest con to crowdsourcing that I see is that if the content, site, or features of the website aren't built properly a company might end up with unintended results or results based on a user bias. This linked article mentions GalxayZoo which attempted to name galaxies by crowdsourcing the naming process. The scientist however discovered that users were more interested in naming clockwise galaxies and the results became somewhat skewed.

In addition to user bias I would image that user fatigue is something one needs to be conscious of when developing a crowdsourced campaign. It would seem that most crowdsourced activities need to be easy and clear to follow in order to get mass attention.

In all crowdsourcing is a great concept and if successfully managed and implemented can have great results for any size company.

Crowdsourcing and Open Source Materials - Week 2

The Dawn of the Human network is a great article on crowdsourcing and how much it’s being used by start-up today. My company is currently in the beginning phases of rebuilding our website and this article has made me think twice about whom I hire and what platform the developer decides to use. After reading the article on crowdsourcing it would seem to me that using an open source platform would limit my risk, could be less expensive, and would allow for easier updates. Most of all using an open source platform would likely mean I could switch developers and easily find another developer familiar with the platform. 

One comment I have about crowdsourcing is that I would imagine that there’s a lot of luck tied to one’s success with crowdsourcing. The article, The Dawn of the Human Network, discusses several companies that succeeded beyond their wildest dream by using crowdsourcing, however I would image there are a hundred failed crowdsourced attempts to every successful one. Simply put when a company chooses to go the crowdsourced route there are either picked up and successful or they are passed over; the product wasn’t right, marketing was off just a bit, timing was off, the list goes on and on. To me a  successful crowdsourced company seems a  little like being the popular kid. 

I also read the Build Your Start-Up Without Building Code article and have actually been playing around 99designs.com which is recommended in the article. The concept is that one writes up a description of the site they want, the features, their budget, and a deadline. The various, sometimes hundreds of web designers work to build the best site. As the designers change and modify their design me as the owner views the developing sites, makes critiques, and then eventually choose the best. So far I’ve been really impressed with the quality of sites and artwork on the site and the costs are far less than the quotes I’m getting from my potential web designer.

My goals for the rest of the week are to continue reading on the topic of empowering the customer. I plan to view the videos and articles listed in Angel and see where they take me.

Week 1 Completed Tasks

Articles Completed:

Article - Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

Article - Does the Internet Make You Smarter? 

Excerpt - "Mastering the Hype Cycle"

Article - "Do You Trust This Face?"  

Video -  "A conversation with entrepreneur and software engineer Marc Andreessen,  

Video - The Web and TV, a sibling rivalry,

Comments: All and all a good start to the first week. Just getting up to speed. Looking forward to more next week and getting started on the Twitter assignment.   

Self-Monitoring and Goal Achievement: For the week I completed all my goals and feel good the first week. 

Brief Thoughts on Mastering the Hype Cycle

I found the article “Mastering the Hype Cycle” to be interesting, mainly because I’ve seen new a number of new technologies generate lots of hype and then quickly fade, I think this article helps define and name we all know takes place.  

Two companies that I feel are working through their hype cycle right now are Facebook and Zynga. A lot of people though Facebook would change the world and transform the way we go about our day.  The truth is that not much has changed in our daily lives as a result of Facebook. I know for myself when I first started using Facebook it was fun to browse and find old friends. However, once I’d located everyone the excitement wore off and now I rarely if ever use Facebook. I think this is common among a lot of Facebook users and common among new technologies. 

Zynga is another company that has gone through a real Hype Cycle. A couple years ago some thought  Zynga would transform the way we play video games and would replace the traditional game console. However, the hype seems to be wearing  off for Zynga and it remains to be seen where they’ll end up.

1st Week Plan

This marks the first week of class. The plan this week is to review the syllabus, listen to the podcast, and read/listen to several of the posted articles and videos.