Crowd Sourcing

Have you heard of the new way of doing business in the world today? It's called Crowd Sourcing.  Skills traditionally used by individuals, specifically trained to perform them are now being sourced through groups, communities or crowds.  "Open Calls" for help from the community usually results in those best able to help in coming forward.  

Extreme, Radical Collaboration

Groups have greater pools of talent to tackle big challenges and to solve complex problems.  Crowds approach their task from outside the "box" of traditional thinking and established ideas, using remarkably new and fresh innovations.  Tapping into collective intelligence of the public at large to complete business-related tasks is becoming the first line of approach in the world of commerce these days.

As with most things, there are pros and cons to the concept.  Pros are the enlarged talent pool, the free labour, the innovation and new thinking that crowd sourcing offers.  Cons would be the blurred lines between producers and consumers, the loss of control of those in the driver's seat and the demand for satisfaction of the crowd.

Here is a wonderful example of Crowd Sourcing at it's finest:

Where do you see this concept at work in your world?  

Have you been part of the crowd?

(hint:  think blogs, wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube)