In our music/entertainment space, ‘crowd-sourcing’ is an efficient conduit for outstanding creation and innovation, i.e. the remix (or as we cal it 2nd gen material) developed by a myriad of engaged fans and customers using stem files deliberately circulated by music artist – a concept that needs to be considered more closely by non-music brands/businesses (but that’s another post). On the flip side, crowd-sourcing can also lead to an explosion of mediocrity and saturation based on many niche opinions/tastes. The point is, crowd-sourcing is sometimes best managed using a filter process, better known as curation. Needless to say, in either instance, crowd-sourcing is now integral to the overall creative process. It is here to stay; the only question is, how is this awesome power engaged in the first instance, then harnessed?
Logically and conceptually this topic encompasses the very notion of businesses under customer-management!
Good topic Chris.