Tag / crowdsourcing

by YannigRoth

Money-making platforms are rare: the cost of co-creation

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When Hyve retweeted Sense (two renown co-creation consultancies), I thought the information must really be interesting. And it was. A report about Winning and Failing Co-Creation Platforms which compares 20 different platforms by interest, community scope or interaction tools.

Even though the report does have some flaws, its conclusion is very insightful and concludes that “money-making platforms are rare“, which is perfectly true. To generate cash, companies either have to sell community-output (like Quirky or Local Motors) or make big companies pay for using the platforms (like eYeka or InnoCentive). Co-creation, Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing… all these iniatives bear costs that can’t be neglected ! Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Why classifying the actors of crowdsourcing is so difficult

crowdsourcing_infographic

Click on the image to download a large version

A couple of months ago, the website crowdsourcing.org released a neat infographic called the 2011 Crowdsourcing Industry Landscape. It gathers various websites and companies which leverage crowdsourcing as a business model. This post is not about discussing whether crowdsourcing is an industry or a work process, I just want to clarify this taxonomy, based on other sources and my humble experience. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Former Threadless CTO gives 5 tips for building communities

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Here’s a very interesting and inspiring talk by Harper Reed (“Probably one of the coolest guys ever“), former CTO of the pioneering t-shirt company Threadless. Threadless is a community-based company that crowdsources t-shirt design and selection, which means that people can (1) submit designs, (2) vote designs up/down… and (3) buy t-shirts! As more and more companies try to leverage communities, let’s listen at someone who succesfully did it. See the (funny) video after the break. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Hyve’s CEO Michael Bartl about using web communities and the long tail for market research

Those who follow this blog probably know that I like to relate the work of a Munich-based company called Hyve AG. The consultancy has worked with (mainly German) brands like BMW, Nivea, Henkel or Osram in co-creation efforts; building branded engagement platforms and setting up consumer communities to co-innovate with consumers. Hyve’s CEO, Dr. Michael Bartl, recently talked to Werben & Verkaufen (“promote & sell”) about web-based user communities and social relationships. Since the interview is in German, I thought I would translate some excerpts into English… Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Is crowdsourcing dead? How creative crowdsourcing platforms evolve

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When Jeff Howe coined the term crowdsourcing back in 2006, he defined it as “the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call” (this definition is still on Wikipedia). Today, other buzzwords like co-creation and open innovation flood the marketing and innovation blogs. To know what’s happening with crowdsourcing, let’s just take a look at how the platforms based on crowdsourcing principles evolve. Let’s take a look at different types of platforms using crowdsourcing principles : virtual ad agencies, creativity platforms and (still) the crowd-sourcers. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Lessons from the failure of social product development-platform CrowdSpirit

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When I read the German book Marke Eigenbau (Do-It-Yourself brand) about a year ago, I claimed that it was a fascinating and eye-opening book about the revolution of consumption going on currently. Mass-customization, co-creation, crafting and 3D-printing are symptomatic movements towards tailored consumption and/or production initiated by the the consumer. Seth Godin said it in 2005 already:  Small is the new Big. Someone who recognized and wanted to build on this revolution is Lionel David, founder and former CEO of CrowdSpirit, an innovation community based on the idea of crowdsourcing the whole product development process, from ideation to marketing (and even distribution). The platform is not online anymore, and here’s why… Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

How crowdsourcing delivers authentic insights and/or breakthrough innovation

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(click on image to access article)

Here’s a blog post I recently wrote about crowdsourcing. The inspiration came from an academic paper of French researchers Jean-Fabrice Lebraty and Katia Lobre who identify two relevant sources of value for crowdsourcing: innovation (new ideas, concepts and uses) and authenticity (brand perception, marketing message etc.). I thought this had to be shared, and therefore translated into English! Glad to find it on crowdsourcing.org, I hope it will encourage mature discussion about the concept of crowdsourcing in marketing.

EDIT (June 26th): The article won the CIGREF-AIM 2011 award, which rewards the best article published in the French academic journal Systèmes d’Information et Management.