Nowadays crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are not only used to raise money for business related things, but also to crowdfund personal expenses. People ask the crowd for money to fund their honeymoons, field trips, education etc. There are several examples given within the article: Ms. Chan wants to attend circus school in Seattle. She went online asking strangers for money on GoFundMe, hoping to raise $3000.-. According to her there used to be a stigma against asking people for money, but this stigma is shrinking as crowd funding becomes commonplace. These days people embrace the technology and look to crowdfund everything from birthday parties to Italian getaways. Do you think this stigma is shrinking? And would you ever crowdfund the honeymoon of a stranger?

For me the answer to these questions is no, I think it is crazy to ask people for money to raise your personal expenses and I would never pay for a stranger’s honeymoon or birthday party. If they can’t pay it themselves they have to cancel it or find a (better) job.

All crowdfund websites differ from each other: Kickstarter has an “all-or-nothing” structure. If someone doesn’t meet his monetary goal, none of the moneys come through. There are guidelines on what types of projects qualify to start fundraising on the site. You are only able to fund money for finite works such as, film and books. While Indiegogo is more flexible, almost any legal activity can be funded. If I had to fund something I would rather look at kickstarter then on Indiegogo because of the strict guidelines on Kickstarter. Which website do you prefer?

References:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/people-are-using-crowdfunding-sites-to-pay-for-overseas-travel-classes-1413997556
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

These days you hear a lot about crowdsourcing, people say: ‘Crowdsourcing is hot’, ‘Crowdsourcing is popular’ and ‘Crowdsourcing grows rapidly’. However, we have to question our selves, is crowdsourcing really that hot? And how explosive is the growth of crowdsourcing? In order to find an answer to these questions current crowdsourcing strategies, campaigns and researches have to be analyzed.

Google insights show the popularity of crowdsourcing in the world. For me it is funny to see that my home country (the Netherlands) appears to be most interested in crowdsourcing.

In 2012 Lays introduced a successful crowdsourcing marketing campaign in the Netherlands, called “Maak de Smaak” (meaning: Create the Taste). In the final of this contest there were three flavors were people could vote on. In total 5,8 million people vote for this. There are many more examples in the article that shows the impact of crowdsourcing, but most important is: what can we expect in the future? Do you think crowdsourcing will develop more? Or did it already reach its roof?

Looking at the Gartner’s Hype Cycle, I think there is room to improve. “The Gartner Hype Cycle, featuring technologies that are the focus of attention because of particularly high levels of hype, or those that Gartner believes have the potential for significant impact”. In 2012, crowdsourcing was being plot in the hype cycle. According to Gartner it will take 5 – 10 years before crowdsourcing is a largely embraced principle in the business world.

References:

http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/crowdsourcing-de-stand-van-zaken

http://www.spinawards.nl/inzending/bekijken/2987

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

The three articles we have to read for this week are: ‘The Collective Intelligence Genome’ by Thomas W. Malone, Robert Laubacher and Chrysanthos Dellarocas (2010), ‘Which Kind of Collaboration Is Right for You?’ by Gary P. Pisano and Roberto Verganti (2008) and ‘Prediction Markets: A New Tool for Strategic Decision Making’ by Adam Borison and Gregory Hamm (2010).

The first article offers a new framework for understanding Collective Intelligence systems and for understanding how to build them. Collective Intelligence genomes consist of building blocks that are called ‘genes’. These genes are classified by four main questions:

-What is being done?
-Who is doing it?
-Why are they doing it?
-How is it being done?

The second article is about the different modes of collaboration. It emphasizes how important it is for companies to choose the right mode of collaboration. Choosing the wrong mode could lead to a failure in developing new technologies, designs and end-products. Four different modes are mentioned in the article: Open Flat, Open Hierarchical, Closed Flat and Closed Hierarchical. The main point of the article is that companies have to keep in mind that a solid understanding of the strategy of their company is the basis due to develop an effective approach.

The third article explains how prediction markets work and why they are better then approaches that people used in the past. Although people keep developing new tools for decision making to minimize the uncertainty, we have to keep in mind that we will never be able to completely avoid uncertainty.

The related article of choice is about the impact of social media on crowdsourcing. Individuals became an essential component to crowdsourcing as it allow you to easily reach a wide bunch of people. Two real life examples that illustrates the influence of social media on crowdsourcing are Threadless and Doritos.

In order to spread word about their design, designers use social media to get people voting on them. Last year Threadless had 1.3 million visits (per month) from audience through Facebook and StumbleUpon. The crowdsourcing campaign of Doritos is called Viralocity and completely relies on social media. Individuals are asked to think about names for their newest flavors, and make a video about it and share it on social media. The video with the highest rates (every like, retweet, share, unique page view etc. counts for one point) wins.

Topic: Diffusion and Social Influence

Nowadays, social media influences everyone in different ways. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, scroll on their Twitter time line to see the latest news instead of reading a newspaper, and go to YouTube to see the newest music videos. These examples of social influence are harmless, however sometimes these social influences can cause great problems.

This morning I read an article on BBC.com, which draw my attention. The article is about two Tanzanian police officers, getting fired because of a widely shared picture on social media of them kissing. According to the authorities of the kagera police force they had breached police code of conduct, because of the fact that the kiss happened in public, whilst wearing their uniform. The picture was taken and uploaded to the Internet by a third officer, who got fired too. Many people are dismayed by the punishment, and started to post things on social media like:

• “They should have been reprimanded, sacking them is extreme, huuh!”
• “I once saw a pic of former US President the late Reagan kissing his wife in the Oval Office… and nobody called for his impeachment.”
• “Police couple kissing taken more serious than bribery.”

According to their code of conduct, we can’t say their dismissal was unfair, but from our own point of view do you think it is? What if the picture was not widely shared on social media, do you think that the authorities of the kagera police force would give them the same punishment?

Sources:

http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/how-strongly-can-social-media-influence-and-control-people-s-lives-

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-29599723