by Scotland Willis
As I continue to work on my book "
Peering Into the Future"; it is impossible to avoid the events that are unfolding like the advancements in technology itself. It could be that social networks are advancing so rapidly because the ability to participate in change events are multiplying exponentially. Crowdsourcing and peer to peer (p2p) networks are very much related. How people communicate, socialize and accomplish tasks is an intricate network of interconnectedness of nodes and ties that help demonstrate how crowdsourcing is occurring.
Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe, of Wired Magazine, explores the power or crowdsourcing and its relationship to business, and how the business model is changing. Several excellent observations and empirical data capture the essence of what is occurring in
crowdsourcing. His investigation into experts who exploited the early stages of what evolved into what is now known as crowdsourcing, is compelling. There are some important connections which I will mention here, that in some way relate to the work of business leaders in the computer field. My additions then might reflect the model of Ned Gulley and his work at MATLAB. I see what exists, have insights that might improve the observation, and will present it here.
One observation we can make about human learning, is that what we produce is based on what we have experienced or been exposed to in the past; a kind of
next step linkage if you will.
I'm not as interested in TopCoders, as much as I am in the social science of it; as a visitor and myself were having dialogue about sub atomic particles to help rationalize the orthodox and unorthodox view of scientist perspective about attracting of such particles, as a means to examine complex social networks, what really interests me is the evolution of social behaviors. With that, my observation into crowdsourcing.
In the chapter titled
The Most Universal Quality, there was a comparison that stood out for me; the issue being addressed was the importance of experiential diversity. Howe made a point to delineate between political diversity and that which he was conveying; for this reason I identify his form of diversity as
experiential diversity. In
experiential diversity, we contribute to crowdsourcing by being enabled by our experience to influence outcomes outside of what might be considered our traditional realm of expertise for a specific project, which would require perhaps years of education and training, i.e., our social/ academic/ experiential exposure-- one might even identify it as
psychological diversity (the different modalities of cognition in among a large group). We become experts at being who we are, and that attribute can have a profound affect on a project being crowdsourced. Thus there are multiple ways to contribute to a project 1) technical expertise and 2) organic experience that provides a new element to traditional thinking.
Diversity does not stand alone as an attribute in crowdsourcing, in fact in Howe's book, one argument is that attributes are not the key in crowdsourcing. I would argue that attributes absolutely are a key in crowdsourcing; along with attributes is experiential exposure. The two make up a primary component to how crowdsourcing will continue to function and prosper going forward. My skills as well as my experience will have a more profound affect than either one standing alone- you cannot exempt one any more than you can exempt man from being human. Experience and attributes work hand in hand.
Note: If you have additional thought about peer to peer networks or crowdsourcing, I invite you to dialogue or email me with additional insights.
