Comments on: Crowdsourcing or Loudsourcing?

By: SimpleK12 » Blog Archive » ISTE Educational Technology Conference: Crowdsourcing

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:34:55 +0000

[...] on Monday, November 2, 2009 chances are high you saw many retweets of ISTEconnect’s blog post Crowdsourceing or Loudsourcing? written by Vicki [...]

By: Darin King

Darin King — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:30:15 +0000

Vicki:

Great post! Very well said, balanced and thoughtful.

I have not voted and pretty much have taken Miguel’s stance. Seems like a political campaign/popularity contest.

Soliciting keynote proposals is great and is current practice for every conference. Once they have been submitted, why not let the ISTE membership vote on the proposals for the keynote? Seems like that would find some balance between open crowdsourcing and rampant loudsourcing.

Again, excellent post!

Darin

By: @crowdmanage

@crowdmanage — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:21:06 +0000

Seth Godin is sending out 30,000 pre-release copies of his new book to a select crowd who contribute $30 to charity. When the Twittersphere ignites with reviews, is it a result of his excellent crowdsourcing – yes. But is it something that anyone can replicate – no.

In order to effectively use crowdsourcing you first have to build an engaged tribe, which is a skill in itself.

The example in this post is interesting because it shows how tribes can skew crowdsourcing ventures just as easily as they can be used to create successful ones.

It seems to me that a lot of companies get excited about crowdsourcing before thinking about how to build loyal crowds. Thoughts?

By: Bill Ferriter

Bill Ferriter — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:51:31 +0000

Vicki wrote:
I say this to point out that it takes more than a good digital footprint, but the idea has to have merit with the crowd you’re talking to to rise to the top. It has to be a good idea that RESONATES with the crowd and then, having links to the crowd through a big NETWORK also will help once you’ve reached that thresh hold.

One of the other parallels here is that those with the largest digital footprint have already proven to have ideas that resonate with others. In a sense, their ideas led to their networks.

And I think that means they’re ideas would have likely risen with or without promotion simply because they would have “sat right” with more of those who were doing the voting.

Does any of this make sense? I’m just thinking aloud here.

Enjoyed the post, Vicki,
Bill

By: Lisa via @SimpleK12

Lisa via @SimpleK12 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:09:12 +0000

I really enjoyed this post… and it’s great to hear your opinion and sentiments. But I’m wondering what others think, as a whole. We started a poll regarding your post on our blog:

http://simplek12.com/istecrowdsourcing

Let’s see what the “crowd” says.

By: Vicki Davis

Vicki Davis — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:28:25 +0000

Oh, Lynn it was totally my fault on kevin, I did link to the correct site but let myself influence the spelling by another friend of mine’s last name in college!! Thank you for pointing out the spelling but the links were to the correct place as they had his picture on them!! Thank you!!

By: Kaya Hardin

Kaya Hardin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:59:50 +0000

Thanks Lynn, for pointing that out. As editor, it was my job to catch it! I have made the necessary name changes. -Kaya

By: Chris S

Chris S — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:05:34 +0000

Thanks for this post. Very illuminating. It seems that this crowdsourcing project got too personality driven. I didn’t suggest a topic, but I did participate in the voting, and I didn’t know the backstory until this post. The results are tainted for me now.

This initiative highlights the difference between a crowdsourced project (where individuals contribute data or work to a larger effort, typically anonymously) and an online election (complete with politicking).

ISTE is in a good place to be a leader in crowdsourcing in education, but I think there are some ‘lessons-learned’ from this one.

What might be a good idea is a wiki-based system. Brian Lerher, a public radio talk show host, crowdsources topics for his 30 Issues in 30 Days Segment

http://issues.wnyc.org/wiki/index.php/30_Issues_Wiki_Start_Page_2009

ISTE might want to look at that for the future.

Overall, I too applaud ISTE for jumping into crowdsourcing.

By: LynnW

LynnW — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:01:30 +0000

Though some of your points are valid —
it amazes me that you did not take the time to check your sources and your source’s names.

It is Kevin Honeycutt.

Minor detail I think not.

http://kevinhoneycutt.org/

By: wmchamberlain

wmchamberlain — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Vicki, without a doubt those that have large followings and choose to use their influence have a great impact on voting in this circumstance. Had you chose to push your idea I am sure it would have had many more votes.

Scott, Kevin, and you have all earned respect from our community. They chose to leverage their place to promote their agenda. To be honest, I would too.

On a separate note, I suspect that Scott’s idea has hit a nerve in a lot of people because it focuses on administration. There is a perception (probably real) that most administrators are ill equipped to lead us through the digital change. At least that is what I gather through my conversations on Twitter and through my RSS.

I think every observation you made is valid. Allowing voting to take place will always cause problems. Unfortunately, as Robert Heinlein once wrote, “Does history record any case in which the majority was right? “