Managing Digital Crowds

March 21, 2017

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 by 6pm on March 20. 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 (92)

JD Equity Crowdfunding Platform: the Challenges It Has Been Facing
Yao
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 9:38 am
Is crowdsourcing a solution for everything? What could go wrong in equity crowdfunding?
Zooniverse: Scientific Research through Crowdsourcing
Bipul Sinha
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 5:37 pm
Zooniverse allows the general public to analyze scientific data and allows faster solving of big scientific problems.
Thoughts on Utilizing Crowds to Disrupt the Airline Industry
Brandon K
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 12:20 am
Flying on an airplane is a highly individualized experience that seems to disregard the value of the opinion of the customer. This post brainstorms some ideas for leveraging the power of the crowd for airlines.
3: Kaggle’s Krowd Woes
AC
Posted on March 19, 2017 at 5:09 pm
Kaggle’s recent acquisition by Google casts doubt on the viability of crowd-sourced expertise as a service.  What went wrong?
Impact Guru: Crowd funding for your need
Venkat
Last modified on March 22, 2017 at 12:39 am
Are you one of the following in the need of money: NGO raising funds for its operation, an individual trying to figure out the medical expenses, or a startup looking to raise capital, Impact Guru is there to help.
Ben & Jerry’s Taste for Crowdsourcing
Bonnie Cao
Last modified on March 30, 2017 at 10:22 pm
How does crowdsourcing help create your favorite ice-cream flavor?
Zhihu.com, bridging the gap of growing knowledge sharing demand in China
Cathy
Posted on March 17, 2017 at 6:11 pm
Zhihu.com a dominated online player in China's knowledge sharing economy
Yelp: Eating with the Crowds
meghana
Last modified on March 21, 2017 at 9:18 am
Yelp has helped create and grow the local business space. Can it remain a market leader in an increasingly specialized space?
PatientsLikeMe – Crowdsourcing patient platform for healthcare
changeme_43
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 4:04 pm
Crowdsourcing platform empowers patients to take a greater role in advancing health
Lego Ideas: Crowdsourcing the Next Big Hit
Andrew Yoo
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 11:24 am
Launched as an internal initiative to boost innovation within a stagnating company, Lego Ideas has successfully engaged Lego’s community of users to help it generate new product ideas.
Let everybody be a salesman – Amway in China now challenged by WeChat Merchants
Hao Wu
Last modified on March 11, 2017 at 12:33 pm
Amway succeeded in crowdsourcing without digital technology. When WeChat arrived, it grew way faster and Amway became disrupted.
Quantopian – Crowdsourcing Investment Algorithms
Dan Sawyer
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 5:11 pm
Quantopian has created a programmer-friendly toolkit allowing programmers to profit from trading algorithms
I’m not a Robot!
Andrea
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 1:44 pm
How ReCaptcha helped Google digitize all books
GoPro: Falling short in capturing value from crowds
Yi Xie
Posted on March 19, 2017 at 11:01 pm
GoPro’s attempts to capitalize on User Generated Content has led them through a journey of value creation, to value capture, and then back to value creation again, as it struggles to grow beyond its camera product line.
Transforming Governments via Citizensourcing
Chun Pan
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 5:40 pm
How cities of Medellin, Colombia and Paris, France, as well as Belgian startup CitizenLab leverage technology to crowdsource solutions to city issues from its own citizens.
Crowd-Sourcing Community Problems and Projects
KunalRai
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 3:22 pm
Use crowd-sourcing to lower the personal costs of participating in community activities.
99designs: Logos, Web, Graphic Design & More
DmitryDIGIT
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 5:14 pm
The #1 marketplace for graphic design, web design and other design contests
Redbubble : Targeting a Worldwide Artist Crowd
changeme_47
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 5:01 pm
A 10 year effort to foster a worldwide on-demand artist marketplace and community
Financing and Consulting for Low-Income Farmers
Techie
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 5:36 pm
A new vision on how to help small farmers rise to the next level through technology.
[Option 1] SportsMed – Capturing knowledge of global medical community for sport related injuries
Katarina
Last modified on March 13, 2017 at 11:33 am
SportsMed uses the expertise of global medical and sports enthusiasts’ community to help patients diagnose their problems and undergo the right treatment plan.
Crowd Cow: How One Startup Is Innovating the Food Industry with Crowd-Sourcing
sijwang
Last modified on March 19, 2017 at 6:21 pm
Crowd-sourcing in the food industry? The idea seems preposterous, but a Seattle-based startup is trying to change that. Crowd Cow has created an online platform that allows foodies to purchase various cuts of premium beef with strangers on its website. Customers [...]
Innocentive: Outsourcing Innovation to a Network of Solvers
Lacy
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 5:57 pm
Innocentive helps clients bring complex business challenges to its network of 375,000 experts.
Quirky: A Failed Attempt at Crowdsourcing Inventions
NP
Posted on March 13, 2017 at 12:49 pm
Quirky was a brilliant idea. Why not crowd-source product ideas. Vote on the best ones. And only bring the ones people want to life. Seems foolproof right? Maybe not so much...
Boaty McBoatface- Lessons From Failed Crowdsourcing
Jack K
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 6:49 pm
Britain’s NERC elected to ‘crowd-source’ the name of its new $300mm research vessel. The Public responded with 124,000 votes for “Boaty McBoatface.” As The Atlantic reported, “The people of the Internet had spoken, and they’d spoken like a five-year-old.”