Modern Ideas Are Bullshit
Posted on | April 25, 2010 | 3 Comments
Idea #17: Crowdsourcing
There’s this thing all the kids at work are talking about. It’s called crowdsourcing, and apparently it’s the absolute fucking business. In the tradition Lady Midler’s finest, crowdsourcing provides unparalleled opportunity for the unwashed interwebby masses to offer up the substantive wind of content beneath one’s bloggy wings.
Let’s say that again, shall we? The substantive wind of content. Yes, it’s that great.
In a nutshell, the crowdsourcing premise is simple. Publishers ask audience for content. Audience supplies content to publishers. Publishers publish audience-supplied content back to the same audience. Audience consumes content supplied by itself, now repackaged with advertising. Copywriters go back to waiting tables, where they belong.
I don’t know about you – hell I don’t even know about me – but the thought of this, a kind of publisher’s perpetual motion device, is enough to make some of the more mercenary types in my business go a little misty eyed. However, the question remains: does it work? In the spirit of scientific enquiry, a test was required.
So I raised the digital conch to my lips, inhaled a lungful of Melbourne’s best, and gave breath to a distress call for my fellow twitter citizens of the interpipes: “I have a mind to write something. Give me a topic for a blog post. Anything will do.”
In response, the internet literally came alive* with a number of replies so vast that I can only describe it as “four”.
Four.
Ok. So the actual quantity of replies was kinda sub-par. But quality counts for something, right? Well then, let’s review the interweb’s finest thought-starters in the order in which they were received:
- makin a sandwhich
Not a bad idea, this one. Now that Master Chef is back, the mood is doubtless ripe amongst the visor-wearing hipster community for an instructional spray on the intricacies of assembling a deconstructed BLT with a bacon foam, lettuce sorbet and tomato jelly, served on croutons with aioli dust sprinkled around the rim. But this is not a food blog, and sandwich was spelled incorrectly, so no dice. - hand models
This was a good callback to an earlier Zoolander quotefest i was drawn into, but basically just an in-joke and not much use as a topic for mass consumption. Besides which, I’m a face and body model, mama, and those finger jockeys are a different breed. - anal leakage
’nuff said. - do something sensible about anzac day and boat people.
Tempting, but I think far too much copy has been flung about on those topics already. And aiming to write something sensible on the subject would seem to fly in the face of current blog thinking to such an extent that i wonder if it’s actually legal.
In short, crowdsourcing has failed me. There is probably some neat aphorism buried in all this – put not your faith in the people, lest the people prove to be something something** – but frankly, I can’t be bothered digging it out. In the spirit of crowdsourcing, find it yourself and then tell me via the usual channels.
That is all.
*Not in the Terminator/Skynet sense of the word. More in the ‘people got enthusiastic’ sense of the word. Only not so much, because bugger all even responded. So, by literally, i actually mean not literally.
**fucking useless, for example.
Tags: crowdsourcing > networking > social media > social newworks > twitter
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3 Responses to “Modern Ideas Are Bullshit”
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April 25th, 2010 @ 6:05 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gil Fewster, Nikki. Nikki said: Fabulous! Crowdsourcing at it's best. RT @gilfer: Thanks for the suggestions. Blog post posted — http://bit.ly/cZLPnC [...]
April 27th, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
“I have a mind to write something. Give me a topic for a blog post. Anything will do.”
The issue isn’t necessarily with crowdsourcing but how it’s sourced, so to speak. To ask for anything without providing context is unproductive.
It would be like, I want to build something. What is it you wish to build? Where will it be built? What’s it’s purpose? Is it somewhere to live, or to drive, or to use as a gadget, etc? Without some structure or context to base our answers around, the results will end up being pretty crappy.
June 14th, 2010 @ 3:05 am
Hi Wayne,
How did I let this go so long without a reply? I’m sure I intended to comment but was probably sidetracked somewhere along the way.
You’re right of course. There’s a world of difference between crowdsourcing and and being a lazy bastard who expects the interwebs to do it all for me. I was aiming for a little bit of tongue-in-cheek here with the tone but maybe that didn’t come through.