個案資料

Crowdsourcing can be defined as the application of social media to the process of open innovation. It leverages social media to enable brands, places, and entrepreneurs to engage and seek input from online communities who contribute powerful, creative ideas. Crowds should reflect a diversity of opinions, be independent, be geographically dispersed, and be able to aggregate private judgements into a collective decision. Culture can be an impediment to a firm’s adoption of crowdsourcing, if the firm is not open to receiving external input. Crowdsourcing also presents various risks, such as low participation due to a lack of awareness by an audience, controversy over intellectual property ownership, and confusion within a crowd about a task. Best practices in pursuing crowdsourcing include: 1) Ensure support: All ideas and contributions should be appreciated, and executive power for developing the contributions must exist. 2) Be clear with definitions: The company must understand how social media is being used internally. 3) Do demos and pilot: Try out different solutions and approaches and find what works best for an audience. 4) Think of what you want to ask: Explain the challenge in a way that resonates with the audience and elicits concrete contributions. 5) Give kudos: Reward the best contributors.