It’s been a little more than a year that I started curating crowdsourcing initiatives by the World’s Best Global Brands on this timeline. As I write this, there are now 479 examples of crowdsourcing listed, with information about the initiatiors, objectives and results of each initiative – at least I try to keep it updated to the best I can! I’m extremely humbled that some of the brightest minds in business and academia (@lindegaard, @jtwinsor, @bogers, @klakhani, @masscustom) also appreciate this timeline. As we are ending 2013 these days, and starting 2014, let me just share some facts based on this timeline’s data. Just scroll down and let the visualizations speak by themselves. Continue reading →
Jan Marcinek (@Kryspin) Launches Visionnaire.co in the Czech Republic
This week, Jan Marcinek from Czech Republic launched his crowdsourcing platform, Visionnaire.co. Why do I blog about this? Because I have interviewed Jan for my thesis a couple of times in the past, and discovered a passionate and talented young man who wanted other creatives to get the same opportunities than he got. Jan, alias Kryspin, is indeed a successful crowdsourcing participant, and wanted to launch a local platform in the Czech Republic. Now, he did just that. Here’s a short Q&A with Jan. Continue reading →
How South Africa’s Freedom Charter (1955) Was Inspired by Citizen Input
I’m currently reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” published in 1994. I’m only half way through the book, but as today is Mandela’s funeral, I wanted to share an excerpt about the creation Freedom Charter, which was inspired by ideas of thousands of South-Africans, and therefore relates to my current topic of interest, crowdsourcing. In 1955, the South African Congress Alliance indeed invited citizen to submit their ideas for a statement of core principles for the country, and they gathered thousands of ideas. Continue reading →
Jeremiah Owyang Présente Crowd Companies à Le Web Paris

Cet après-midi, à Le Web Paris, Jeremiah Owyang a présenté son dernier projet: Crowd Companies. Dans sa présentation “Is Your Company Ready For The Next Ten Years?” (Votre entreprise est-elle prête pour les 10 prochaines années?), il a présenté quelques entreprises qui, se basant sur les ressources apportées par la foule, bousculent des industries établies: Airbnb qui se frotte à l’hôtellerie, Uber qui embête les chauffeurs de taxis et d’autres. Les habitudes de consommation changent, et Crowd Companies a pour projet d’aider les grandes entreprises à s’adapter à l’essor de la consommation collaborative, de la fabrication à domicile (maker mouvement) et de la co-création entre clients. Continue reading →
News Coverage About Crowdsourcing

On this blog I’ve gathered academic representations of crowdsourcing, whitepapers about the same, or videos about crowdsourcing platforms by OVC – all of which I try to update regularly. But let’s be honest, this is mainly niche content that interests academics, thought leaders or crowdsourcing participants, and does not tell much how the rest of the world perceives crowdsourcing.
Yet, in a world where crowdsourcing is getting mainstream, it might be even more interesting to broaden our perspectives a bit, and to see how mainstream media treats the topic. If you look up “crowdsourcing” on YouTube you will find lots of conferences, panels, student projects and explainer videos. But what about real media coverage about crowdsourcing? Here’s a list of clips that discussed crowdsourcing in the news (mainly on TV), presented in chronological order (years). I will try to keep it updated.
PhD Studies in France: Findings from a Government Report
Last month, Emeric Bréhier presented, on behalf of the Commission of Cultural Affairs and Education, an opinion report called “Research and Higher Education: Higher Education and Student Life” (see Pdf & web, in French) at the French National Assembly. It was meant to discuss two particular points of the 2014 budget plans and presents some interesting points about being a PhD student in France.
Our country, contrary to our counterparts, does not value the PhD degree enough (excerpt)
Crowdsourcing As A Way to Get Creative Ideas and Content – #SEMPL15
Any Slovenian-speaking readers of this blog? If yes, the click on the image left to read “Množičenje kot način pridobivanja kreativnih idej in vsebin,” which could be translated into “Crowdsourcing as a way to get creative ideas and content,” published in the Slovenian Marketing Magazin before SEMPL15, where I’ll speak about crowdsourcing in video advertising at the end of this month.
Simona Kruhar Gaberšček told me that crowdsourcing doesn’t have a translation in Slovenian, and that they chose to call it množičenje, a word that is almost unknown by Google Search, even though Google Translate tells me it’s close to the Slovenian for Dowel. Anyway. For those of you who don’t talk Slovenian, here’s the translation of the interview (links have been added by myself). Continue reading →


