“The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the human race has always outstripped our capacity to harness it. Crowdsourcing cor...
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Nov 03, 2011
trav
rated it: 
This book a very good primer to all things "social" online. It helped flesh out some of the history and scope of many of the group efforts out there. But it seemed a tad too long in the depth department. True, the details and longer narratives do add context, proof and support, but a book on this rapidly changing subject really needs to be more focused and intense. At times it felt more like a history book of efforts and systems, than current strategies and "looking forward".
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Jul 29, 2011
irfan
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If this book was to be written as short as 3 years ago, it could be a truly revolutionary idea of a book. But alas, what i do find written is just a mere rehash of some ideas that has already been around, and in fact is a model for most online businesses that is driven by netizen-driven initiatives. But though its basic premise is the idea that the wisdom of the many far supercedes the intelligence of the few, what this book does highlight well is the various sub-aspects and classifications of h
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Jan 08, 2011
Mike
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Jeff Howe was one of the first journalists to coin the term the coin Crowdsourcing in Wired Magazine. It is only fitting that he would come out with a book about the same source. Originally crowdsourcing was described as the process by which the power of many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of the specialized few. The transformative power of today’s social media, cheap technology has been able to liberate the potential within the common person. In a world us
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Dec 28, 2009
Garrett
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Crowdsourcing is another of the millions of pop business/technology books out there (a la The World Is Flat and The Long Tail). The gist of it is that the Internet enables large numbers of people to work together, and that these crowds can collectively outperform experts when organized correctly. Howe insists that crowdsourcing is changing the way stuff happens--how research and development is being conducted at major companies; how photographs and movies are generated, shared, and sold; how (of
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May 23, 2009
Grace
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I am very ambivalent about crowdsourcing. At first, I rated this book very low (1-2 stars) because of the rah-rah boosterism extolling the virtues and home run success stories in crowdsourcing. Some of it sounds downright exploitive.
If Cincymoms.com brought in $386,000 in ad revenue for Gannett in its first six months, then why were the 10 'discussion leaders' paid a paltry $25 per week? They were required to start 10 new discussions per week, write 20 posts to the discussions o More...
If Cincymoms.com brought in $386,000 in ad revenue for Gannett in its first six months, then why were the 10 'discussion leaders' paid a paltry $25 per week? They were required to start 10 new discussions per week, write 20 posts to the discussions o More...
May 25, 2009
Jeff
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According to Howe, crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. In a simpler sense, it's the application of Open Source principles to fields outside of software.
"If this book could be reduced to a single theme, it would be that the erosion of the boundary between producer and consumer has begun to exercise a considerabl More...
"If this book could be reduced to a single theme, it would be that the erosion of the boundary between producer and consumer has begun to exercise a considerabl More...
Aug 10, 2010
Rodhilton
rated it:
Crowdsourcing is an informative book about the growing popularity of using large crowds to solve interesting problems or provide content. The term "crowdsourcing" was actually coined by Jeff Howe, so this is a pretty authoritative book on the subject.
The book covers all sorts of things which fall under the very wide umbrella of crowdsourcing, such as Linux, Threadless, Myspace, Wikipedia, TopCoder, American Idol, iStockPhoto, and quite a great deal more.
The boo More...
The book covers all sorts of things which fall under the very wide umbrella of crowdsourcing, such as Linux, Threadless, Myspace, Wikipedia, TopCoder, American Idol, iStockPhoto, and quite a great deal more.
The boo More...
Dec 05, 2011
Tan
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The book argues that the Internet, coupled with the rise of online communities, ever decreasing costs of multimedia production (re vid editing software/ cams/ vid cams),have blurred the line between producers and consumers. Case studies examine the variants of crowdsourcing employed by companies like Threadless, iStockphoto, and Innocentive, and the technologies that allow the wisdom of the crowd be tapped, whether in content creation (Threadless, Youtube, modding Half Life), capturing crowd pre
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Mar 24, 2009
Andy
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Working in the publishing industry, where our gatekeeper role is eroding and information itself is slipping out of our hands, I care a lot about the power of people working together. I'd like to see how organizations have helped this movement (also known as peer production) and managed to benefit from it. And I'm happy to say this book gave me some insights and guidelines.
Wired has a negative reputation for being trendy, breezy, and cute, but I find a lot of good journalism in it, an More...
Wired has a negative reputation for being trendy, breezy, and cute, but I find a lot of good journalism in it, an More...
Jan 29, 2012
Paul
rated it: 
I thought this was a really interesting book and spot on with some of its predictions.
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May 16, 2011
Sam
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I don't often read books like Crowdsourcing, but I found Jeff Howe to be an engaging writer who knows how to tell engaging stories to explain his theories on how to use the crowd in business. There are a few places that feel a little repetitious and dull, but Howe mostly delivers a solid message in an way that I found entertaining. My recommendation: Don't read this book word for word. Skim it, browse it, read it like a manual of sorts and you'll pick up the message without getting bogged do
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Jan 29, 2012
Been meaning to get this for a while now. It's by the guy who coined the phrase in Wired a while ago.
Crowdsourcing "ticks so many of my boxes" (a horribly hackneyed phrase I know) from 15 years ago and more when I was really into this management philosophy stuff. From Tom Peters' "Skunk Works", through stuff such as Ricardo Semler's "Industrial Democracy" in "Maverick", and on to my own short lived experiment of "The 3 Hoots Principle" More...
Crowdsourcing "ticks so many of my boxes" (a horribly hackneyed phrase I know) from 15 years ago and more when I was really into this management philosophy stuff. From Tom Peters' "Skunk Works", through stuff such as Ricardo Semler's "Industrial Democracy" in "Maverick", and on to my own short lived experiment of "The 3 Hoots Principle" More...
Sep 24, 2008
Aili
rated it: 
In the introduction Jeff Howe defines a person who is not a "digital native" as "anyone who still gets their news from a newspaper." It's probably petty, but I stopped right there and I don't intend to finish. I enjoy the format of the newspaper, and it's worth $5 a month to have the news edited and delivered to my driveway in a tangible format that reminds me to take the time to read it before I recycle it. Plus I love the comics. Yes I also get news from the internet, but I
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Jan 03, 2011
Dan
rated it:
Definitely a worthwhile read. Written in 2008, not a novel concept for sure, but it was interesting to read an in depth look at many businesses succeeding off crowdsourcing and to have them all put together in one place. I for one would like to read more about AssignmentZero, what the goal of the experiment was, and why they gave up on it and allowed it to end — seemed like something worth pursuing in more depth.
Dec 06, 2009
Renee
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I find crowdsourcing very interesting especially with a generation that is growing up not really having boundaries on what they can do as technology is easy and accessible. This has also directly impacted their value to the product itself with downloading music and movies quickly and easily. How will the market and society adapt to a new business model, and will crowdsourcing matter?
I am very interested in this topic so the book was an easy win for me.
I am very interested in this topic so the book was an easy win for me.
Nov 08, 2010
Krystal
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Although a bit dated now (what book addressing social media/networking isn't out of date long before the reader ever gets it these days?), I really enjoyed looking more at the roots of crowdsourcing and where the idea first came from and where it was going at the end of 2008 when the book was published. As it is a principle we are trying to use where I work for cataloging archival documents, looking at past crowdsourcing projects and models helped me understand better how we should be shaping ou
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Dec 14, 2009
Salvatore
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As with most corporate books, this one is dry. The idea of crowdsourcing is an interesting one, and the cases the author uses are interesting, but chapter after chapter of the same examples makes for a boring read.
Jan 23, 2009
Mako78gma
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Explains the phenomena of letting "everyperson" contribute to the development of you online idea. He gives examples of how the amateurs outperformed the experts in business.
Nov 07, 2008
Kelly
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I think Howe is a few years behind on the trend. I think I've read all of this, in multiple forms, in many different ways, throughout the last two years. I'll add the writing isn't even that good nor is it at all insightful.
And on a particularly irritating note, he dwells for a long time on Putnam's "Bowling Alone" book, but then assumes everyone knows what the third place is and that everyone has read Oldenburg's "Great Good Place." It should have been the other More...
And on a particularly irritating note, he dwells for a long time on Putnam's "Bowling Alone" book, but then assumes everyone knows what the third place is and that everyone has read Oldenburg's "Great Good Place." It should have been the other More...
Sep 24, 2011
Justine
rated it:
This reads like a semi-doctoral thesis. Would appeal to the academically inclined, though for the practically inclined, nuggets were far and few in between.
Apr 15, 2009
Wm
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Much better than I had expected because Howe is careful to not overhype, he presents the narratives well and frames them even better, and he's got some really great case studies to work with here.
Aug 28, 2009
Michael
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a lot of information in here you can find in similar books. howe does a good job of explaining how to use social networks in more practical ways.
Feb 06, 2009
Steve
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Examples of Toffler's theory in Future Shock in today's world. How to utilize the power of the internet to create. Loved the examples.
Jan 14, 2010
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe (2008)
Mar 30, 2009
Missy
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Picked this up to read for work, but oh, hello, my online life, so nice to see you in print.
Jun 27, 2010
Connor
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If you are thinking about reading this, go read Here Comes Everybody instead. It's much better.
Jan 07, 2010
Devaki
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recommended by Kenji. Good stats and things to ponder in this consumer driven retail-sphere
Dec 26, 2011
Michael
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While this book is now almost four years old, I believe that many businesses are still not in tune with the lessons it has to give.
Jun 27, 2009
Stephanie
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The blithe attitude of this book gave me the chills.
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