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)

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.
Crowdsourcing AI at Drift: Does Analyzing Crowdsourced Information Actually Make Bots Smarter?
Ellen DaSilva
Last modified on March 12, 2017 at 7:40 pm
The proliferation of chatbots over the last two years has made life easier for some people. But are these bots really learning from their crowdsourced data inputs to make the outcome better for all users?
Frito-Lay’s Do Us a Flavor Contest
Julia
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 9:34 am
Lay's potato chips crowd-sources new flavors in an annual contest - but is it more marketing engine than product development innovation?
HitRecord: Paving the way for crowdsourcing in entertainment industry
Onaizah P
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 9:19 pm
How HitRecord was able to build, nurture and monetize a community of creative artists
Transforming Government – Giving some power back to the people!
Andrew Banovic
Posted on March 16, 2017 at 3:31 pm
Utilizing technology, can we do a better job making decisions about the future of our country than our elected officials?
Quora – Capturing the World’s Knowledge
pvuong
Last modified on March 19, 2017 at 5:01 pm
About Quora Quora is a question and answer site, where anyone can sign up for an account and start posting questions or responding to questions posted on the site. The company’s mission is to “share and grow the world’s knowledge.” It [...]
De Correspondent: member-based journalism
Daniel C
Last modified on March 21, 2017 at 12:26 am
In 2017, the Dutch online newspaper “De Correspondent” reached a new milestone: 50,000 paying members1. Even though only 4 years old, the new venture is already rivaling the biggest newspapers in digital users5. Their secret? Building and sustaining an active, [...]
#KissandTell: Lulu’s Failed Attempt to Crowdsource “Dating Intelligence”
Libby
Last modified on March 11, 2017 at 11:30 pm
Lulu created a community where five million women were willing to “rate” their dates. In a world where online reviews guide everything from hiring a handyman to picking our pizza, where does the wisdom of crowds cross the line?
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.
[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.”
Wikipedia
Megan Wu
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 5:21 pm
Crowdsourcing Knowledge
Angie’s List: The Original in Crowd-Sourced Reviews
Lauren
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 3:24 pm
For over 20 years, Angie's List has leveraged technology to help homeowners make wise purchasing decisions, but does the company have staying power?
[2] Kaggle: Building deep communities for deep learning
Oyku
Last modified on March 20, 2017 at 1:40 am
Kaggle is a competition platform that leverages crowdsourcing to find solutions for deep learning problems. This blog summarizes how Kaggle managed to create value and its challenge to stay relevant
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