TMRE Keynote 2009: Crowdsourcing: Unleashing the Power of Crowds to Unveil Rich Insights
Crowdsourcing: Unleashing the Power of Crowds to Unveil Rich Insights
Jeff Howe, Author, Crowdsourcing
In 2005, Jeff Howe sent a story about MySpace to the Village Voice. MySpace had created a culture with musicians, which lead Jeff Howe to follow the Warped Tour to write a column for Wired Magazine. The Tour is about the music, but features a carnival culture. The Warped Tour kids engaged in amazing creativity throughout a summer tour of 30 bands traveling and playing in a different city every day. They published poetry, web design, paintings. None of the kids defined themselves as one certain thing like "musician" or "artist". The technology was not the story on the tour, it was what they could do with the technology. Their emphasis was on the products and the processes and how they released their creativity.
A key to Threadless was they get free marketing. Via street teams, users posting images of their shirts, in addition to personal designs from the users. They also see what consumers want. They have an 'I'd Buy It' box. They know which shirts will sell. They've never had overstock or sold out due to this function.
One member of the audience posed the question "How can businesses build their own communities to create these items?" Howe responded communities came together because they were being offered something, the crowd was being offered something. For example, if you are a grocery store, give the community a way to see if you have things in stock, give them specific coupons that apply to your users, etc.