Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Crowdsourcing - Getting the Masses to Work for Free and Like It

I just came across Quirky - a crowdsourcing website that lets people suggest product ideas, and lets others help design, rate, improve and comment on those ideas. Purportedly, if the products you help influence are chosen for production, you get a cut of the proceeds. A very cool idea, and nicely executed too. Check it out.

Incidentally, the way I stumbled across this website was that one of my favorite websites, Engadget, where I go to get my daily gadget news fix, featured a really cool product designed on Quirky - a flexible power strip. Now that's a brilliant idea - I am amazed that no one has thought about it until now.

I signed up for Quirky, and we'll see if I can influence any cool upcoming products. I doubt that individuals can make serious money on the website, but this is clearly a bargain for Quirky itself since it's getting great design ideas for very little upfront investment. For the likes of me it's a form of entertainment, I guess.

I am really curious to see where the crowdsourcing trend will lead.

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