Food for Thought

There is no doubt that we have seen the power crowdsourcing spread its branches across numerous industries.  Today however I came across a first…a restaurant fueled entirely by an online community of voices.  Elements, a Washington based eatery, prides itself on creating a “third place between home and work for people of all ages, preferences and backgrounds to meet and nourish themselves, the people around them, and the planet.”  The Elements project was originally launched in 2007 by Linda Welch, a Washington business woman who partnered with friend and local entrepreneur and crowdsourcing proponent Neil Takemoto.  Welch had originally purchased the business and liquor licenses of nearby Sparky’s, a failed coffee shop, but had no idea what to do with them.  Soon thereafter Takemoto and Welch had a very deep and inspiring chat.  According to the Washington Post the conversation between the two went something like this:

Takemoto:  “How about crowdsourcing the restaurant?”

Welch: “Great!’ “ She remembers. ” ‘What the hell is that?’ “

A month later, the group had its first meeting.

 ”I ordered one pizza and picked up a six-pack of beer,” Welch said. “I thought if there were three or four people there, that would be a lot.”

There were 14 people at the first meeting.  Since that day, the entire build process has been driven by a dedicated community of crowdsourcers including architecture buffs, food lovers, designers, potential chefs and servers and a local nonprofit called Live Green, whose purpose is to help establish affordable, environmentally sound businesses.  However, the part that I find most intriguing is the points system.  Members earn points for their participation efforts, such as attending meetings and referring new members; those with at least 1 percent of the total points are eligible to share in the 10 percent of profits allocated to members.  Definitely a unique and uncharacteristic approach. 

In case you’re wondering, Elements serves only organic vegetarian dishes provided straight from their own garden which is housed in a facility that more than exceeds environmental standards.  As if this wasn’t enough, Elements also supports balance globally by cutting waste, composting, recycling, and by neutralizing carbon output with offsets and green energy. If you’re at all interested, check out the Elements website, track their progress, or submit your own ideas.  With over 400 members and counting in their online community, it will be very interesting to see how the Elements project fares against what many say is the toughest industry for startup success. 

-PB

Edopter Blends Crowdsourcing and Internet Buzz to Create “Social Trendcasting”

 

“Edopter is social trendcasting, combining user insight and worldwide buzz to tap into the next big thing. Users create and follow trends, share and discuss them – then watch as they spread across the world. The site provides a social interaction point around trends in people, places, things, ideas, fashion, media and the web. Part wiki, part stock market game, users get in on trends with potential and earn points as they gain popularity both online and off”

 

 

Social trendcasting website Edopter is attempting to do something no other website has successfully acheived – predicting upcoming trends.  The model is fairly simple.  Edopter allows users to create “trends” based on what they believe will eventually catch on.  Some current trends are obvious such as ”Batman: Dark Knight” and others not e.g. “Tap Water”.  The user that creates the trend is then faced with the task of writing a “pitch” surrounding why they feel the trend will catch on.  Edopter’s system then scans the web searching for content around the trend and returns a measurable level “buzz” back to the user.  From here, users have the capability to post videos, pictures and discussions surrounding a trend.  With more discussion and content comes more users and popularity, thus increasing the value of the trend.  Users must “buy into” each trend using points accumulated from various activities on performed on the website.  Each user starts with 500 points and the earlier you get into a trend the cheaper the buy-in, hence users are encouraged to spot trends as early possible. 

The ultimate goal of Edotopter is to gain access to a specific demographic that has never before been tapped…trendsetters.  These are the early adopters that are always on the lookout for new ideas -the big picture people if you will.  However, I feel there is one major flaw in this system.  From my perspective it seems that most of the trends posted on Edopter are ones that already exist, i.e. “Batman: Dark Knight”.  Yes, the movie is tremendously popular and many people are buying into to this trend, but it is in no way anything new.  In fact, unless there is pre-existing internet buzz floating around a current topic, Edopter won’t assign a high trend value to the topic following its scan of the web. Personally, I struggle to see how value is created simply from discussion around a movie that has already broken the single weekend box office record or any other topic already being discussed all across the world.   

Hopefully as the site progresses (only in the beta stage now), more users will join and create content for their own “big ideas” rather than the current pre-existing trends, however, I personally would be hesitant to post any of my own “big ideas” until I know it’s rock solid and ready for feedback/criticism/praise.  That said, I think this is a cool concept and is worth checking out. 

 

 

Thoughts?

 

-PB

Crowdsourcing to the nth Degree

Nvohk takes crowdsourcing to the next level by crowdsourcing, well, almost everything. Nvohk (Invoke) is the first community-managed eco-friendly clothing company, and probably one of the first community-managed companies in general. Members make key business decisions including logo design, product design, advertising, product mix, and other design related activities.

The basics go something like this – first, one must become a member for $50/year – from there it is possible to submit logo ideas, vote on certain business decisions, and win rewards and cash based on what you have done. It’s certainly an interesting and brilliant business concept, and will prove to be a very interesting experiment in business management, marketing, and design.

With all “co-founders” having an equal share in the business by submitting the $50 fee, they almost become de facto “shareholders.” By allowing the customers to have an extremely influential effect on the everyday business decisions, this becomes an easy way to get consumers to evangelize the brand – they are actually making the decisions and have a vested interest in the Company’s success.

If successful, this model could potentially lead the way for other small start-ups to take similar paths by ceeding some amount of control, creative or otherwise, to the masses.

-Mike

Pete Blackshaw’s New Book

In “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000,” (buy it here) through what interactive marke­ting ­expert Pete Bla­ckshaw­ calls “consumer-­generated media”—blogs, s­oci­al networking pages, message boards, product review site­s—ev­en a single disgruntled cus­tomer can broadc­ast his complaints to an audience of millions. This provides both challenges and opportunities – unprecedented in both directions; by not listening to online brand or company conversation, this can create enormous liabilities, while by listening to and acting upon conversation, this can create a distinct competitive advantage. The more time that passes that companies do not realize the duality of the situation, the more opportunity is lost, and the more the potential liability builds.

Pete outlines upfront three truths that inform the entire book:

• Businesses no longer hold absolute sway over the decisions and behavior of consumers
• The longer companies refuse to accept the influence of consumer-to-consumer communication a­nd perpetuate old ways of doing business, the more they will alienate and drive away their customers
• To succeed in a world where consumers now control the conversation, and w­here satisfied customers tell three friends, while angry customers tell 3000, companies must achieve credibility on every front.

How do you create authentic messages, maintain credibility, and synthesize the fact that businesses no longer have absolute sway over decisions? By listening to, and acting on conversations that are happening on the web, businesses can accomplish all three. Companies that chose to ignore this important raw conversation will be left in the dust by more progressive firms who capitalize on the opportunities presented to them by simply paying attention to how the online space perceives their brand or company.

The important aspect of this conversation is that it is often “unfiltered.” It is not subject to biases that may be present in formal focus groups – it is simply raw perception. If there seems to be a disconnect between what execs believe their message is and what the online space is saying their message is – companies better listen. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for companies that use it to it’s advantage), perception is reality.

-Mike

Fox is Next to Tap the Masses

This Just In:

Fox Broadcasting Company, yes the same Fox that brought us classic shows such as the Simpson’s, 24, and the Tick (well maybe not the latter), has partnered with crowdsourcing firm Passenger to build an on-line community around Fox shows and to help executives make more informed programming and marketing decisions.  Passenger will help Fox to analyze public response of pilot episodes, plot direction, character ratings throughout the development process.  This is not the first project Passenger has worked on with an entertainment studio.  They played a huge roll in helping LOST big wigs Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse select which episodes would be submitted to Emmy voters.  Fox is hoping that Passenger can begin by helping to collect feedback on their upcoming fall schedule. 

Some studios have been reluctant to take the crowdsourcing route because of the constant monitoring of feedback required.  Lately however, many have been turning a corner so-to-speak, and recognizing that a focus group here in and there is simply not enough to gauge the public opinion.  Who knows, maybe with a little luck they’ll listen to this blogger’s voice and bring Elisha Cuthbert back on 24. 

 

-Paul B.

Leveraging the Power of Crowdsourcing

In the past couple of years, the term crowdsourcing has been thrown around quite a bit. Crowdsourcing, which was coined by Jeff Howe in 2006 Wired magazine article, refers to the act of taking an everyday task and outsourcing it to the masses in the form of an open call, hence crowd-sourcing. The idea here is that the voice and actions of many is ultimately better, or more efficient, than that of one person or company.

Recently, there have been several very public demonstrations of crowdsourcing within the corporate world. Powerhouses such as Kraft, Sony, Starbucks, Pepsi, and MasterCard have all utilized the public voice to drive their marketing campaigns. Even Apple recently purchased a consumer-generated advertisement from a college student (you may recall the “Music is my Boyfriend” iPhone commercial). The reality of today’s situation is this – traditional marketing outlets (i.e. Television, print, billboards) are becoming less effective on the generation that truly matters – Generation Y.  Gen Y is a tech savvy, Web 2.0, real-time answers needed group of individuals. They command their voices to be heard and lately many companies have been listening. So, as the number of crowdsourced tasks continue to increase, it will be very interesting to see how the voices of the corporations will echo the voices of the masses. More to come later…

-Paul B.

First Post

Hello!

We are three young professionals trying to understand, learn more, and further develop the concepts concerning consumer generated media, crowdsourcing, consumer defined brand messages, bottom-up marketing, and other relevant topics concerning “new media” (for lack of a more all-encompassing word).

We hope to use this as a forum to post news, thoughts, original articles, and most importantly, share and observe others opinions about this very relevant societal phenomenon.

What do these new trends mean? Do they mean anything, and to whom? Who will benefit, who will lose? Can these trends be monetized? Where is the ROI for companies who use such methods?

We hope to address these, and many more questions as the dynamic trends surrounding CGM continue to evolve.

Thank you for reading,

-Mike