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CROWDSOURCING
Wiki-LabsTM apply the collective intelligence and collaborative working of crowdsourcing in a practical and efficient way to enable better, faster, smarter outcomes.
Crowdsourcing has transformed the way organisations think about their business, create solutions and develop new ideas.
The world’s largest corporations from Nike and Starbucks to Procter & Gamble and Unilever are using the power of the crowd to develop new products and processes.
Crowdsourcing is usually understood to refer to an online process which invites a large and usually undefined group of people from outside the organisation to address an issue of importance to the business or society.
BP’s corporate Mayday to find solutions to the Deepwater Horizon crisis or the UK Government’s call for ideas to reduce the deficit are recent examples.
As with open crowdsourcing, Wiki-LabsTM are open 24/7 and can be accessed from anywhere there is a connection to the world wide web. We share the crowdsourcing tenet that all of us are smarter than any of us but work with closed groups of invited participants with specific and diverse experience to bring to the process.
The participants in Wiki-LabsTM come from anywhere in the organisation and, because they work anonymously, they do so in a free and open way and without the limitations of hierarchy. We also bring in external experts to contribute to the process by providing additional expertise and greater diversity to the group.
Unlike open crowdsourcing, our way of working is collaborative rather than competitive and is fully facilitated and supported with extensive background data, video and photographic material to inform and inspire participants.
The diversity imperative
“Understanding diversity is imperative to understanding collective intelligence, and collective intelligence is an essential ingredient in one of the principal categories of crowdsourcing: the attempt to harness many people’s knowledge in order to solve problems or predict future outcomes or help direct future strategy.”
“Crowdsourcing”, Jeff Howe, 2008
From crowdsourcing to collaboration
“The term crowdsourcing has become unpopular with some of those like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who one would expect to support it.‘ The problem is that the notion of a crowd – this amorphous crowd has no individual perspective. There’s a value in mass participation but where possible the people need some expertise. We call it collaboration frankly."
Tom de Castella, BBC Online News Magazine, 5 July 2010
We build the right communities
We help clients select teams based on the challenge we are taking on – making sure we have the right mix of idea generators, refiners and finishers. We also add diversity and specialist knowledge by including our Wiki Talents – outside experts, creative thinkers and devil’s advocates who bring fresh thinking and challenge the status quo. We ensure that everyone taking part has a common goal and understands his or her role in thechallenge.
