You’ve probably heard of “crowdsourcing” – a way for organizations to solve tough challenges by tapping-into the knowledge of their broad communities.While social media and web technologies provide governments, businesses and other organizations with tools to crowdsource more rapidly and collaboratively, crowdsourcing itself isn’t new.
In a great blog, DesignCrowd researched some of the most well known examples of crowdsourcing. They think the first case could date all the way back to 1714 in England. And, of all the examples they describe, it’s this one – the invention of the Marine Pocket Clock – that I find the most interesting. Here’s the story.
1714: The Longitude Prize
In 1714, sailors in the British navy had a problem. The motion of a ship through the waves meant that traditional clocks with a pendulum couldn’t keep accurate time, which they needed to for navigation purposes. If they didn’t know where they were, captains and their unlucky crews could sail right into reefs or other dangers.
The Admiralty couldn’t find a solution so, in perhaps the first example of crowdsourcing, they issued a challenge to the public. For a prize of £20,000 (US $4.7 million in today’s money), everyday citizens were asked for their solutions to this tough problem.
And it worked! The winning response was received from a Mr. John Harrison, the son of a carpenter.
What does this tell us?
I really like this story because it shows some of the fundamental principles behind crowdsourcing:
- People outside an organization are willing to help solve a problem
- Organizations don’t have all the answers… sometimes they need to leverage the knowledge of people outside
- Even the most technical and seemingly impossible problems can be solved, and from the most unlikely sources
While the term “crowdsourcing” is new, the idea that organizations can look outside for help has a long and interesting history.
- Ellis Westwood -
Note: My thanks to DesignCrowd for the original blog that inspired this one.
Social Media and Democracy (and One Really Interesting Example)
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Those who suggest that social media hinders democracy often point to a phenomena that has been termed “slacktivism” (“slacker” + “activism”). This results in minimal, “feel good” measures of support for an issue/ cause for the purpose of personal satisfaction and social capital.
To be clear, I don’t think that claims of “slacktivism” are entirely unfounded. We all know how easy it is to “like” a person, issue/ cause or organization on Facebook. And statements like, “…so what if Barack Obama’s Twitter Feed has nearly 9 million followers? How many of them called their representative to lobby for his health care bill?” do reflect the gap between clicking a button and taking real political action. However, I do think that there are some important nuances to be mindful of when thinking about the real value of social media.
In the article, Emily Badger refers to Lee Rainie’s (Director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project) notion of “engagement as a spectrum.” He suggests that “we want lurkers to become commenters, and commenters to become forwarders, and forwarders to start knocking on their neighbour’s doors… If social media helps move any of those people a little further down that line, isn’t that increasing engagement…” So maybe all I’ve done to support my local MP is join his Facebook group. But what if my friends see this on their news feed, and a few of them decide to do the same, or even more? And what if this process replicates and builds further through their networks? In this context, I don’t think that the impact of the online social network can be understated.
Before I go, I also want to highlight something that I found really interesting. Part of the Obama administration’s digital engagement strategy is the “White House White Board.” This is a series of short (3-4 minutes), YouTube-hosted videos of well-known, senior public servants explaining some of President Obama’s major policy initiatives. Wouldn’t it be great to see something like this here in Canada?
- Tristan Eclarin -
Tags: Case Study, Social Media
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