Actually, don’t – blame social media  and crowdsourcing. Penned by Jeff Howe in a 2006  Wired Magazine article , crowdsourcing does exactly what it says on the tin – allows us to source a crowd for an answer. There’s no denying that crowdsourcing can offer a valuable and beneficial option for gathering information or opinions on any given topic. Instead of crowdsourcing your next question, try this: Google it. Don’t get me wrong – I crowdsource just like anyone else does. Social Media crowdsourcing research social mediaYou’ve become lazy. Useful? MORE >>

Yet even small business owners can now afford quality branding services thanks to the concept of crowdsourcing. Here is a list of seven crowdsourcing sites that can help you build a better brand, improve customer service, strenthen you reputation, all while keeping your costs to a bare minimum. probably not what regular website owner is going to deal with, but if you work with media a lot, this crowdsourcing resource sure comes in handy. Microworkers.com This is a unique crowdsourcing resource that deals primarily with microjobs. Branding can be expensive. Sorry ?we MORE >>

Trend Spots crowdsourcing gamingIt has been shown that the human capacity has still important advantages over computers. Scientists have learned to use crowd sourcing tools to improve their research. To achieve cooperation, they present models of the problems in a game like display and challenge the partipants to find solutions. This lead to the development of the ESP Game (to determine objects) and Peekaboom (word association games). They were the first to demonstrate how humans, as they play, can solve problems that computers can’t yet solve. MORE >>

By now most of us are aware of various crowdsourcing campaigns being used to generate ideas, funds or support for a brand or cause. We are now witnessing a second generation of crowdsourcing efforts in which social entrepreneurs are reinventing their industries filling the voids left by traditional businesses. Ushahidi is an open source software platform that crowdsources information and visualizes it to enable individual to share their personal stories more easily. Tags: Advertising Brands Capitalism Consumers Future Social media crowdsourcing Or bad brands do good? MORE >>

Lay’s is one of the latest brands to experiment with crowdsourcing on social media — by allowing consumers to submit recipes for a new chip, and fans on Facebook to vote for the best new flavor. Other brands to use crowdsourcing via social media include: Harley Davidson (fans submit creative marketing/ads) , Samuel Adams (create a new, crowdsourced beer), Arizona Iced Tea (create a new flavor) and McDonald’s (submit new burger recipes, outside the U.S. Social Media Campaigns crowdsourcing Facebook contest Lays potato chips snack industryonly). MORE >>