2013 will be the International Year of Crowdsourcing
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to call 2013. After saying 2011 would need to be the International Year of Resilience (much still needed) and 2012 the International Year of Problem Solving I’m thinking now that Crowdsourcing (the idea of seeking assistance beyond your own capabilities from the ‘crowd’ often through social media) has reached a critical mass and that means we can expect it to become a normal event across 2013. Here’s some examples to support my thinking:
Crowdsourcing is extending from niche hobby farm status to mainstream. The people movements like AVAAZ; MoveOn; GetUp! and 350.org are clear examples of mass movements of crowds in action. They have emerged to by-pass the political barriers that are preventing much needed positive action on a whole range of issues that many feel are beholden to selective special interest groups. The ‘Get Kony’ and Occupy WallStreet were other fine examples of a mass movement leveraging social media technologies around a particular issue, even if end-goal ‘success’ might not always be achieved.
And it’s not just social initiatives. Harvard University recently leveraged a gaming community and crowdsourced an answer to an HIV enzyme that had been troubling them for over a decade. The FoldIt community arrived at their answer in just three weeks! Other initiaives now look to diagnosing Malarial infections (UCLA) and private offerings such as ‘Cure Together’ seek to solve all sorts of chronic diseases. The barriers overcome are lack of research funding, entrenched approaches to solution seeking or bias toward models of cure.
And the funding of new business start up and ideas through the likes of KickStarter and GrowVC are showing that serious investment dollars can be generated by simply asking the ‘Crowd’ for help. The barriers here are heavy handed approaches for funding of the mainstream banking sector who’ve lost touch with the fact that in the years gone by (looong gone?), banks were Innovation partners in businesses and broader society, not usury takers which many seem to have fallen into becoming.
As acceptance of this approach improves its practise and societies’ willingness to engage in it, expect rapid uptake in a whole array of areas (see below).
So I herein declare 2013 to be the International Year of Crowdsourcing! Some key areas for Crowdsourcing will be Medical cures AND medical provision; bespoke pharmacy (legal and not); Tourism and bespoke holidays; Food production & Distribution; and one with ‘game changing’ status’ – Logistics, especially if (as I predicted in the 2004 National Geographic Channel’s TV series ‘Future Matters’) 3D printing goes mainstream. Other areas seem more obvious with the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) started by the likes of Stephen Downes around five years ago (and finally on the radar of more mainstream Universities over 2012), expect the push toward Crowdsourcing of Education to continue to shape both content creation and service delivery.
Don’t say you weren’t tipped!
As Nations look to develop their understanding of Productivity and more effective planning, National Productivity Councils are often the first point of call for Governments looking for ideas. The Asia Productivity Organisation has been running since 1961 helping its member countries develop more effective approaches. I’ve just spent a week in Tokyo helping a group…
Read More >Okay I admit that on the first take this idea might sound a little crazy. I reminded myself however of that saying that ‘all great ideas must at first sound crazy to the existing paradigm…’ or some such thing. You might know who said it (please send me an email if you do). So I…
Read More >We all use words that tell us about the results that were achieved and whether our expectations were met, missed or exceeded. Surprised? Disappointed? Delighted? The only way you can experience these emotions and others like them, is to have an expectation in mind. And the ONLY way you can teach your organisation to learn…
Read More >The last couple of months have been hectic to say the least, with a myriad of client engagements across an array of industry sectors. And as you can see from the list below one thing is clear: EVERYONE wants to understand what is shaping their future and how they might be able to influence that…
Read More >Those of you that have been tracking this website for a while will know that towards the end of each year, I nominate the following year’s area of focus. For instance I declared that 2015 would be the International Year of Battery Technology, and as the news stories, product research and renewables push shows, it…
Read More >I’ll be helping to kick off the Local Government Corporate Planners Conference in a couple of weeks, offering some thoughts about emerging issues for Councils and an approach to planning that should alleviate some issues for them. You can find details in this link to the conference program which is being held at Citadines…
Read More >The immediate needs of farming families are obvious. Feed to keep stock alive, someway of holding onto their farms under the stand-over tactics of some banks, and Rain. Donations can fix the immediate short term to an extent but they cannot fix the long term trajectory. That requires difficult conversations and an acceptance of the…
Read More >There are four phases of thinking that every organisation MUST have available to them if they plan to be resilient to challenges, adaptable to changing circumstances and able to sustain themselves over time. The Phases are Strategic; Operational; Execution; and Evolution. If you miss any one of them or underplay an area, sooner or later…
Read More >Life is full of interesting and not so interesting choices. Some seemingly mundane or innocuous choices turn out to be life makers (and breakers). Occasionally the noisy intensive choices turn out to be little more than a passing zephyr carrying dust. The National Party in Australia have just been presented with a ‘Fork in The…
Read More >It probably does not get much simpler than this – no MBA required, no advanced training needed. And rather than give you the ‘mistake’ I’ll just give you the solution which is this: NEVER mistake the positiveness of Your Intent… with the ACTIONS you have taken! You cannot improve if you convince yourself that ‘good…
Read More >