Leveraging the Collective Intelligence and Effort of Digital Crowds

October 31, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

In this module we have examined how firms can leverage digital technologies to harness the power of collective intelligence from the crowds to tackle a range of problems such as innovation problems and funding startups. For this assignment you have three options:

1 – Pick one industry where no firms have leveraged crowds, and come up with a crowd-based business model that may potentially transform the industry. Describe how you plan to create and capture value. Explain why the crowd will participate, and why your crowd-based model is better than the current model employed by the incumbents.

2 – Describe a company that is using crowds (external or internal) in an innovative manner. Describe how they incentivize participation and manage the crowd. What are the challenges? Describe how value creation and value capture occur, and the growth potential of this business.

3 – Companies often struggle with crowds as well. Describe failed crowdsourcing efforts and explain how and why the company failed. Given what you have learned in the course, what would you do differently?

Create an approximately 500-750 word post to make your contribution. Please create appropriate tags for your post. Please also respond to and comment on three other posts per module. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

Please prepare a two minute pitch about your blog entry before the class.

Submitted (136)

The Medium to challenge all mediums
CX
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 11:01 pm
Medium has become the place to self-publish online, crowdsourcing content from you and I to Bono and Melinda Gates, disrupting the news and publishing industry.
Lessons from Duolingo’s Effort to Support Free Language Learning from Crowdsourcing
AJT
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 3:28 pm
@duolingo crowdsourced text translation platform allows users to learn a new languages online for free
AngelList Syndicates: Crowdsourcing the Limited Partner role
KMY
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 5:35 pm
AngelList – an investing platform with the tagline “Where the world meets startups” – has historically been a platform where angel investors could review self-created profiles from aspiring entrepreneurs (think LinkedIn for startups).  If an angel investor liked what they [...]
Betabrand: Because the Market Demands Bicycle Suits
Chippydip
Posted on October 30, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Yoga pants that double as dress pants? Reflective blazers for biking to work? “Executive” hoodies with pinstripes and cuffs, or “Academic” hoodies with tweed and elbow patches? “Sock Insurance” in case the laundry eats one of yours? If the market [...]
Quora: Quality and profitability are still open questions
PD
Last modified on October 27, 2015 at 12:25 pm
Quora has turned to the crowds to create a high-quality Q&A site, but maintaining quality and building profitability may remain challenging.
NASA is Getting Crowdy and Saving us from Asteroids
Donald Frump
Last modified on October 30, 2015 at 4:09 pm
Crowd sourcing the hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids.
The Demise of Digg: How an Online Giant Lost Control of the Digital Crowd
Sean L
Last modified on November 1, 2015 at 3:17 am
Digg's inability to prevent fraudulent voting allowed power users to take control of the site's content and undermined its mission to produce democratized news.
Nextdrop: sourcing from the crowd when the crowd doesn’t have internet access
HC Watcher
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Nextdrop, a tech start-up in India looking to solve water utility logistic issues, is breaking many rules. They are a for-profit company, but they plan to make their money from solving a social issue. They are a tech company sourcing [...]
Spacehive: Crowdfunding Civic Projects in Great Britain
guillermop
Last modified on October 28, 2015 at 5:43 pm
Spacehive democratizes urban planning by funding projects directly through the crowd.
Watsi: ‘Giving Back’ through crowd sourcing!
Karthik
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 5:59 pm
Watsi, one of the fastest growing non-profits in web history, represents the next generation of charities. It connects medical patients in the developing world who can’t afford the medical procedures they need with donors via the web who can donate [...]
Applause: Solving testing pain point with the power of crowds
GA
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 10:41 am
Doron Reuveni met Roy Solomon at a party in Israel in 2007. Both worked in tech businesses and discovered they shared a view on a critical pain point for many companies: they have to build apps to reach millions of [...]
Bark & Co.: Using the Celebrity Dog Crowd
Damla
Last modified on October 30, 2015 at 3:29 pm
How 400 famous dogs became the sales team
Motif Investing: Democratizing investment selection for retail investors
QC
Posted on October 24, 2015 at 10:47 am
The traditional model of personal investing looks like this: individuals like you and me either sign up for a brokerage account, select investments and construct our own portfolios (“the DIY approach”) or hire a financial advisor that makes investment suggestions [...]
eYeka: crowdsourcing creativity
HelloSof
Posted on November 1, 2015 at 6:04 am
Disrupting the creative industry by leveraging the power of the crowd.. or not
OpenIDEO Brings Crowdsourced Creative Solutions to Solve Social Challenges
Sara Alsadi
Last modified on October 31, 2015 at 8:34 pm
OpenIDEO brings solutions to big challenges around the world by connecting sponsoring organizations with crowdsourced solutions from its community members
Street Bump: Crowdsourcing Better Streets, but Many Roadblocks Remain
CEA
Posted on October 30, 2015 at 2:17 pm
Boston's Street Bump is an interesting effort at leveraging the collective intelligence of the crowd to improve road conditions but still faces many challenges in creating measurable value for and incentivizing users.
Lime Crime: Leveraging the Crowds for “Makeup for Unicorns”
Nazli O
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 11:43 pm
Lime Crime is an indie, cruelty free makeup brand created by the eccentric Doe Deere, a self-proclaimed misfit and a fan of 90s inspired grunge makeup. The company is best known for the innovative, trend setting and non-traditional color scheme of their [...]
Facebook – Crowd-sourced translation
RS
Last modified on October 28, 2015 at 8:06 pm
How Facebook used crowdsourced translation to spur international growth
SoFi: Crowdfunding Student Debt
AP
Last modified on October 30, 2015 at 7:54 pm
SoFi is a non-bank lender leveraging crowdfunding to transform student loan markets
Crowdsourcing Healthcare
s
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 6:04 pm
The online physician social networking platform, SERMO, may have the potential to solve some of healthcare's trickiest problems. But, can it break into the current models of care?
Oscar: Flirting with behavioral risk based pricing strategies
Andrea MF
Posted on October 29, 2015 at 7:06 pm
Introducing data collection through emerging technologies to innovate in the heavily regulated space of insurance companies
Assembling a great team by asking fans who they want to see
Oded
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 8:28 pm
Professional sport teams can improve their rosters by crowdsourcing ideas from their fan base.
Hype Machine: The Crowd-Sourced Music Blog
CSS
Posted on October 27, 2015 at 8:13 am
Founded in 2005, Hype Machine sources music through a hand-picked catalogue of music blogs from around the world.
Increasing flight safety using crowds
BS
Posted on October 31, 2015 at 11:48 pm
Aviation has long used crowds to increase flight safety in the form of the pilot report, or PIREP. Digital transformation combined with a renewed commitment to the crowd could further reduce in-air risk and even save lives.
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