John Winsor

Crowdsourcing is Spreading Like Wildfire. Creativity May Get Commoditized. Seriously.

Here's a great post from fellow CP+Ber Colin Drummond:

Only the latest of many, many examples.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. OK, if you don’t want to be afraid, at least understand how big this is. The reason it’s spreading is because it’s working. Sure, you have to sift through a lot of the crappy ideas you get, but there are some good ones in there. Actually, not just good ideas, REALLY good ideas.

Creativity really does look like it could get commoditized. The great democratic idea of our business - that everyone is creative –is becoming very real, very fast. So, the big question is: what left in our business will not be a commodity? What do you think?

Audi's Getting All Social

Audi USA is kicking off their "Youth Mobile 2030" design challenge and has invited customers to get involved via the company's Facebook page. Here's the beta via Mashable:

Audi is posting videos of their design process, information about the contest as it progresses, and soliciting questions and feedback to find out what the fans would like to see in a car of the future. It wants its 300,000 fans to know that as a company, Audi listens to its customers and wants to engage in a conversation about the future.

The future is not aggregating your own crowd to get involved with you for either feedback or design but it will knowing how to tab into the right crowd or community to mobilize people around your ideas or problems.

The Rise of Crowd Editing

Yesterday, the NY Times reported that Wikipedia has established a new editing process:

The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version.

Every crowd, including Wikipedia, needs an editor.

LEGO is the Coolest Toy Ever

If you ever had any doubts at all that LEGO was the coolest toy ever this video will rock your mind. Talk about some late night grinding. It took 1500 hours to make the LEGO creations for this video.

(Thanks to the tip from Ben Malbon at BBH-Labs)

Today's Awesome and Scary Video

Here’s a really cool video that Faris Yacob (@faris) just sent along. It’s mind bending. Check out the full story on Faris' Blog.

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QR Codes

QR codes continue to proliferate bringing interactivity to the physical world. Expect to see them more often.
 
Sent from mobile me

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Certified Pre-Owned Cats

Here’s a fun ad from the Michigan Humane Society. I love the way they take something so culturally ingrained in all of us, used car salesman, and spin it to help find homes for cats. (via TreeHugger)

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Crowdsourcing and The Future of Corporate R&D Labs

Steve Lohr did a wonderful job exploring the future of the corporate R&D Lab in his article entitled, The Corporate Lab as Ringmaster. Here are a couple of good thoughts:

Crowdsourcing and other new, more open models of innovation are really byproducts of the low-cost communication and new networks of collaboration made possible by the Internet.

So, in the Internet era, what is the continuing role and comparative advantage of the corporate R.& D. lab?

You could substitute almost any organization that acts as an intermediary into the question above and be searching for a way forward.

Steve's answer to the question is a good one:

The best bet for corporate R.& D. labs, he said, is to adopt a “federated” model that leverages all the innovative work by outsiders in universities, start-ups, business partners and government labs. The corporate lab’s role, then, is to be more of a coordinator and integrator of innovation, from both outside and inside the company walls.

How can you become more of a ringleader in what you do?

How Much is United's Brand Damaged?

Dave Carroll has released a sequel to his now famous “United Broke My Guitar” YouTube video that was watched by over 5,000,000 people. What’s the damage to the United brand from the way they treated Carroll? Social Media has given the average customer the power to make or break a brand. Are you ready for this new reality?

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Climbing in Vedauwoo

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