Linked by David Adams on Tue 29th Sep 2009 14:53 UTC
In the News Forbes has an interesting article that attempts to push Crowdsourcing off its pedestal by pointing out that "crowds" don't actually invent or create anything; individuals do. What the crowdsourcing phenomenon does is put an opportunity in front of a large number of people, some of whom may be uniquely suited to solve a particular problem or achieve a particular goal. The article goes on to discuss Open Source Software, and points out that Open Source's success isn't because of crowds of anonymous people, but the largely the efforts of identifiable virtuosos.
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Seems to come up a lot
by Yamin on Tue 29th Sep 2009 16:06 UTC
Yamin
Member since:
2006-01-10

It came out on House the tv show this week.
Basically he left his job as super diagnostic doctor. His old team struggles to treat a patient who is computer savvy.
The patient sends out emails and posting to see if anyone on the 'web' can diagnose him.
In the end, it turns out House (the great expert) posts the answer.

I don't want to get too political... yet I will because I have met many hi-tech folks who are obsessed with crowds. It is to an extent an obsessive belief in democracy... that everything would be okay if we just voted on everything.

I'm much more of the belief in freedom as opposed to democracy. The idea being... if you have a good idea... get out there, get funding, and do it. Then you will have proven your idea is good.

The current alternative is a bunch of bureaucrats backed by the crowed will decide what will be done, take the resources by force (taxation) and then tell the workers what to do.