There was a bit of a buzz earlier this year on crowdsourcing and its power within innovation, business and design.
Garrick Schmitt over at Razorfish asks us if .
Can it?
No, it can’t.
The reason design, creativity and innovation cannot be outsourced comes down to one thing – leadership. Without strong leadership and a clear vision the crowd becomes meaningless. Google is the ultimate source for exploiting the power of crowds, but without precise queries, Google is useless. Ever heard of that expression, ‘garbage in, garbage out’? Yeah, that’s what it comes down to with crowdsourcing.
In Schmitt’s article he’s gives (F!) as an example of crowdsourcing inspiration. Are there many editors contributing to the content of site? Absolutely. Could we consider the richness and strength of F! coming from the power of crowdsourcing? NO. We need to credit the richness and power of F! to the creators of said site.
When I discovered F! over 2 years ago I fell in love with it. It became one of the places I got my ‘design/photography fix’ and one of the first things I tried to do was sign up for an account, but what I found and what is still the case now, is that registration is by invitation only.
F! is a gated community. Apparently there is discretion when inviting people to become editors & curators. Interesting. It seems as though the power of the site comes from high standards, strict control and good taste. I would be willing to bet Schmitt’s job that the popularity and quality of F! would immediately drop if registration were open to all.
This is exactly the case one of Schmitt’s other examples – . CrowdSpring represents the crowd minus the leader. Actually, there are leaders for each project listed on the site, but the level of excellence required varies from project to project, and from vender to vendor.
Creativity.
Design.
Innovation.
These things cannot be crowdsourced.
They must come from a leader who is creative, innovative and has high standards for design. Period.
