C is for Crowd--

C is for Crowd--

One of the more recent discoveries, well at least things that have piqued my interest of late is crowdsourcing or crowdfunding of projects.  This sort of thing involves much more involved projects than the standard projects that I do around the house. 

For those that are unaware of what I am talking about, this concept is utilizing and harnessing the power of the internet to achieve the aim of the project.  Crowdsourcing is where a project is divided up into chunks and then distributed around the internet to come up with solutions to the answer.  This is an offshoot of typical outsourcing, but has a reach into the internet, where there is a diverse pool of problem solvers.  With the large population on the internet there is always an available pool of intellectual to solve the problems.  With this model, a lot of the labour can be free or very small amounts of compensation provided.  This model can be found in both the corporate world, but also in the developmental world trying to solve developmental programs.  Probably my most favourite group that has sprung up on the internet that are looking for skilled people to devout time to is Open Source Ecology.  You can learn about them from their TED Talk on YouTube.

I am very interested in participating in one of these groups.  I have skills with CAD (specifically SolidWorks) that I would like to utilize, but I haven’t found a site in which I can ply my skills as an Industrial Engineer. 

Crowdfunding is a little more easily figured out.  It is typically where an entrepreneur has an idea for a product, sometimes with a social agenda, is looking for some seed money to start their project or build a prototype.  The largest of these areas is known as Kickstarter.  So people will post their pitch up on the site, and put how much money they are looking for.  Then people will perform their own due diligence with the idea and if they like it then they will put money towards the project.  From my knowledge the project is not green-lighted until their minimum dollar value is achieved.

I really appreciate this method for product production as it is truly democratic and free market.  Only the ideas that people will support with their wallets get selected.  Since this is still on the fringe and the volumes are so low, the governments and multinational corporations haven’t cared what people are doing out on the edges.  Plus they may have a good idea that they can snag.

So there you have it, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.  Two ways in which the internet is being utilized to promote projects going forward outside of their basement.

If you like what you have read, please subscribe to the blog, or follow me on twitter at @bjshideler.  Also, don't be afraid to share this with your friends on your favorite social media sites.