Is it just me… or are there an overwhelming number of ‘bright idea schemes’ floating around at the moment? All of them searching for the big idea that will make life better after COVID. A lot of what I’m seeing are versions of ‘crowdsourcing’. Ask lots of people a question, and they will eventually come […]
Thailand Flood Hacks. Plastic Bottles, Expatiation and Innovation
Seriously, what cat would wear that colour? Image Source: Thai Flood Hacks https://thai-flood-hacks.tumblr.com/post/12826178385/water-bottle-swimming-vest-for-cats-via#notes Everything is wrong with this picture. There is no cat I’ve ever known that would permit me (or anyone else) to: Put a vest on it, Sew plastic water-bottles into the vest, and Sit around to have its picture taken wearing the […]
Hackdays and Co-Production. Should they involve more than ‘whoever turns up?’
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” Albert Einstein. I know the picture is of Max Planck, there is a reason. You are probably fed up of seeing the Einstein quote, often stated as an instruction… ‘change the way you think!’. It may be just me, but sometimes it […]
The Wisdom of Crowds, Flappy Birds, Tulip Mania, and The Tyranny of Herds
“Decisions made by crowds aren’t uniformly good” a quote from Dave Snowden that doesn’t quite fit with some views of crowdsourcing. The prevalent idea is that if you ask large crowds of people to solve a problem, provide a view or give an answer (usually via the internet), they will do a better job than […]
Crowdsourcing and brilliant ideas that were originally rejected. No such thing as a bad idea?
Have you ever been to an engagement /consultation/staff development day and been asked to write down your ideas on ‘post it notes’ and then stick them on flip charts? Someone then dutifully collects the forest of paper and promises to type them up and share the results. Months later you get sent a document full […]
Crowdsourcing. You need to move a lot of muck to find the golden nugget and the silver bullet.
“everyone remembers the Goldcorp Challenge?”… apparently not Crowdsourcing is being promoted in some areas as a potential ‘silver bullet’ to solve the problems of pubic services. At first glance, what’s not to like? It’s co-productive. It can involve citizens and service users in solving problems and designing the services they use; It’s cost effective. Many people […]
Crowdsourcing, could this be the groovy new name for staff ideas schemes?
Recently someone important told me that Crowdsourcing was “old hat, and we’ve moved on from that”. What they had moved on to wasn’t explained but I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of Crowdsourcing in the world I occupy. Fortunately I went to an IdeasUK event last week which was focussed on how social media […]
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