DigitalPopuli - Latest Comments

Re: On Kids, Parenting and the Real Time Web

moshi monsters — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:55:19 -0000

You know moshi has had 50million members sign up since 2008 – that is
like at a rate of 1 signup per SECOND. And like one out of every two
children aged between 5 and 12 in the UK has a Moshi Monster account...weird.

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

Cristian Parrino — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:56:22 -0000

Wish I had the time to keep track on them all (or maybe glad I don't...). In addition to the four listed in the article, have a look at Yelp CheckIns, gypsii, Google Latitude, Brightkite, PlacePop, Streetmavens, Whrrl, iWassuu and most recently Google Buzz. Also keep track of Facebook and Twitter's own moves in this space.

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

Robert S — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:56:14 -0000

As I am writing a thesis on this topic, can you indicate the 20+ other social location apps you're refering to? Thanks a lot. Robert S.

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

Cristian Parrino — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:04:05 -0000

Thanks for the lead, gypsii looks like another interesting one. I have admittedly fallen prey to those companies who enjoy the US/UK centric media attention when having a look at social location services. Funny enough, as a result of writing this post - readers have pointed out no less than 20 other social location apps. Wish I had the time to check them all out...

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

woofiewoof — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:54:30 -0000

Interesting writeup. Thanks. Surprising that you didn't mention gypsii.com. Their app certainly has more users globally than all of the apps you mention put together. Reports were also out that gypsii has location-based coupons that have been widely deployed in China. I think they've also raised more funding. Gowalla has less than 70,000 users, whereas we've heard sources tell of gypsii adding 100-200,000 per WEEK!!
http://corporate.gypsii.com/co...

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

lionsden — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:05:01 -0000

I have just been able to sell LBA ( Location based Advertisement to one of our Biggest Operators in the Gulf countries ) and this is sth the customer through a business case can use to generate more revenues on SMS and royalties on advertising companies....I'd like to explore things in more details with you Sir...BR\\\Jamal Ericsson

Re: The Rise and Growth of Social Location Applications

Martin Bryant — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:21:49 -0000

Interesting, in-depth look at the space. I think over time the novelty of location will wear off and virtually everything will have a geolocative nature. Many of the companies we see as hot properties at the moment will disappear. The transition period is going to be gripping...

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

joshbarnes — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:24:38 -0000

Great post Christian-

You really make a point that we've been trying to emphasize from the beginning; that the process of engagement in a crowd sourced advertising campaign is as valuable or more than the end product.

Our community spends time poring over the creative brief, brainstorming on ideas, and then creating video, print or interactive advertising. Then they reach out to their social networks to promote their creation. Their social network then comes back to our site (Zooppa.com) to view, comment on & vote on the different pieces of creative. This creates an entire ecosystem of brand engagement, as the consumer public is not only being exposed to brand images, but is actively thinking about the brand at each step.

Here is a link to a white paper about crowd sourced advertising from Zooppa:
http://blog.zooppa.com/tips-ab...

Re: Social Games and Offer-Scams: Sorting Through the Noise

nevermorea — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:36:58 -0000

I've also been the victim of some company signing me up for long distance on my landline through a third party vendor without my consent.

The information they had from me as a security question and answer were so unknown to the public, I'm afraid one of my wife's coworkers used her private information to get a free something. My wife NEVER inputs private info; she hardly uses the internet.

Fortunately the 3rd party repaid all charges and canceled, I mean ALL charges. 3 months of payment and sign up fee were recovered at the cost of $250. I had to yell quite a bit, but I got it back.

So for everyone out there, check that landline bill for any 3rd party charges.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Cristian Parrino — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:32:22 -0000

Thanks for the kind words :-)

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

blogulak — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:41:27 -0000

Cristian, I recently discovered your blog and I'm really enjoying it. I really like the length and level of analysis in your posts - not too brief but not too long. Good topics as well. Just wanted to encourage you to keep blogging.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Kate Hiscox — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:27:47 -0000

Excellent post! I'm the founder of newly launched Spudaroo.com which crowdsources business material including social media releases, newsletters, slide presentations, business plans, web content and so on.

The way I see crowdsourcing, its an extremely efficient way of getting things done at a price that is agreeable to the project owner and the expert. In my experience, loyalty is formed very early on in the process between the PO and an expert and the crowdsourcing website where that connection was made, is doing nothing more than facilitating an efficient and timely conclusion to the project with both parties satisfied.

I started Spudaroo because I was tired of basing purchase decisions on proposals and so far, the feedback has been tremendous. Crowdsourcing is absolutely here to stay but I agree, it will be interesting to see the evolution of the model.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

kingderek — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:50:41 -0000

Good post, I think the next generation crowdsourcing will be elitesourcing as they call it at Edge Amsterdam (www.edge-amsterdam.com) where they say that crowdsourcing only works with the right crowd. And I think it is not about logo design. But brands are looking for brand and product innovations, that's where they should use the creative elite for. And especially the young talents. They walk on the edges of their creative abilities with ease and are the true motors for creative innovation.

But it all comes down to a fair and balanced revenue sharing model between the creators and the network.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Frank Neulichedl — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:25:21 -0000

I like the idea to use hyperniche experts for crowdsourcing - is the evolutionary step of the niche-marketing research. Not just ask the niche what they like, but actively engage them to start something they would buy or use.

Obviously the creation process has to be filtered and guided - but think about the posibilities: A big brand ask you what the next product should be. Maybe the next trend could be Nichesourcing-

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Rick Liebling — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:13:29 -0000

Great stuff here. For me the issue is one of purpose. I'm interested to see how brands could you crowdsourcing to solve very specific, very challenging problems. In this manner, getting a bunch of submissions and hoping one is really good is the wrong way to look at it. You want to have a large pool of hyperniche experts, each one of which can add the very best answer in his/her field to the overall solution.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Rick Liebling — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:10:45 -0000

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Michael Lacy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:48:18 -0000

"Crowdsourcing in the real time web is in its early stages and as such, is bound to evolve from its current state. For it to become a sustainable model, there needs to be a way to improve the current “many work one gets paid” issue."

Indeed. And there is. I encourage you to take a look at quirky.com. Every week we crowdsource the design and development of consumer products and reward all contributors with cash.

The way it works is that users earn influence for submitting and supporting winning ideas (product ideas, logos, product names, taglines, industrial design, etc) as well as participating in market research. Influence is essentially an equity stake in a product's sales. And 30% of product revenue is paid out to product influencers.

With this model, we can track user performance over time and discover the most influential members of the community. And since they have earned the most influence, they have also earned a proportionately large share of the product revenue that gets paid back to users.

It's a powerful feedback loop.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

DanIdeaBounty — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:30:06 -0000

Hi

Great post and some very important points. I represent Idea Bounty (the platform that Unilever used to crowdsource for its Peperami brand) and much of our thinking about who we are is very much inline with some of your points.

Initially the reaction to Idea Bounty was one where people were of the opinion that we were a direct competitor to the agencies -infact we like to think of ourselves as a tool for agencies to embrace rather than compete with. Our model is constructed in such a way the we only look for ideas and there is always a need for there to be someone to execute and produce the idea. One of the reasons why Unilever ended its relationship with Lowe was becuase they felt that after 15 years of working on the account Lowe were not producing any fresh ideas - To us this would have been the perfect opportunity for Lowe to step in suggest to the client that they source ideas through the crowd with the guarantee that A) they would be involved in picking the best idea and B) They get to produce the idea. Added to that the high level if engagement and different perspectives on the brand you receive is invaluable.

Crowdsourcing is definitely here to stay in one form or another and the sooner agencies start embracing it the better. Thanks for the post again!

Cheers,

Daniel
@IdeaBounty

Re: Dissecting the Success of Social Gaming

Ether — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:22:26 -0000

Great post, Cristian! Would you mind posting link to the original venturebeat article that you mention above in the Freemium Business section?

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Simon Baer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:46:12 -0000

I really enjoyed the post and the debate that it has started. Christian, I absolutely agree that a crowdsourcing effort can also engage that brand's community. The challenge as Frank points out is getting the crowsourcing efforts (largely designers or other people outside of the brand's community) into the brands distribution channels (facebook, twitter, etc) and get it picked up by their brand champions. My attitude is that if you want your brand's champions to pick up the story it needs to be Remarkable and Marketable- a certain shock factor doesn't hurt.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Frank Neulichedl — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:03:54 -0000

Well, let's separate the two parts. Crowdsourced design where many supply and one wins is something we can both agree has existed the whole time - only the rewards are getting smaller. This will go down until they reach pratically zero - like it or not. Most of today's freelance graphic designers will only survive if they can sell more than just graphic design.

As for the "free" crowdsourced design the answer is simple. Is the ROI (Return on Investment) in such a project - mostly attention - for you as a professional enough to engage? Is the recognition big enough to boost your portfolio in such a way to find paying customers for other projects? If not don't do it - leave it to the amateurs (btw. amateur means "the one who loves the things he does")

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Cristian Parrino — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:17:06 -0000

Thanks for the comments and Walkers link Jeremy - nice example of profit sharing.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Cristian Parrino — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:09:18 -0000

Hi Frank, appreciate your comments!

On your first point, though I agree designer abundance has made the current model possible, I'm not as sure it makes it sustainable long-term. For one, pitching for work and doing that work without getting paid are two different things. Particularly since this shouldn't be exclusively applied to design, but also to video production, flash development, etc.

Agreed on the critical mass requirement for a viral campaign, hence qualifying it as "potentially viral". The main point was about engagement, which is about interaction, conversation and visibility - and in a campaign, engagement is not limited to those who choose to submit work.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

Frank Neulichedl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:19:56 -0000

Nice thoughts but you are missing 3 essential points.
1) The many work and one wins works because we are in a market of designer aboundance. It's quite normal for classic advertising agencies and is called "pitching". Sometimes the losers get a small reward for the effort, but most of the times the winner takes it all. Therefore by transponing this to the crowd you just scale this usual practice.
2) To use crowdsourcing as a viral tool you must reach the critical mass that itself is news and recognized by the consumer. The people who "create" are always a small part of the society, just think about how many of your readers write comments
3) Most open source monetization is build around services - well advertising agencies make most of their revenue exactly through services - the creative process and the graphic labour is not the heart of the adevertising agency. This is the romantic view we see in hollywood movies.

Re: What’s Being Ignored in the Crowdsourcing Debate

jeremyhayes — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:35:45 -0000

Great post. I particularly the "looking ahead" piece. The analogy to Open Source is a good one. Monetary rewards are important, but some of the intangibles ('a good way to get hired', 'a good way to get recognition') will be equally important as drivers of open innovation. Tools for collaboration for crowdsourcing/OI prizes will also be important as I believe that the 'winner-takes-all' model of prize-based innovation will limit the growth of OI. Firms/OI intermediaries need to find a way to reward the 'person who comes second', give good feedback to failed submissions to get people to try again, and recognise the abilities of those who constantly submit solutions, but may not be successful. Some sort of rating/reputation mechanisms can help here.

Finally, from talking to some successful OI solvers, it is clear that the 'prize' is not always enough. Some solvers want a share of the future profits that will come to the firm through adoption of their innovation. Walkers Crisps in the UK gave 1% of future sales to the winners of their crowdsourcing competition
http://www.walkers.co.uk/flavo...