Joe Heath

5 Jan 2009

Is crowd creationism really an intelligent design?

Plenty of brands have been experimenting with Crowdsourcing over the last 2 years…Best Buy asked people’s views on how they could improve Toshiba and HP laptops, enacting the changes through their Blue Label brand; while Dell and Starbucks both set up community platforms to source consumer’s thoughts on how to improve their services. But 2009 looks set to be the year the potential of the crowd is tested even further; rather than simply listening to the crowd a few brands are turning to the crowd to actually create their ware from scratch. 

One of the most ambitious is Project Splitwheel, the world’s first project to design and build a new performance car through an online community. In partnership with Caterham the community will discuss and vote on all the key decisions that will shape the design and the build of the vehicle. 

 

At the other end of the spectrum is Perkins’ 14 a new horror movie scheduled for release this month; Perkins’ 14 was created at Massify.com (an online collaboration site for film makers) and is the first ever fan-created film. Members of Massify began by submitting film ideas after which the community voted on their favourite, once Perkins 14 was selected the community then set about making the film, discussing and voting on every step of the process, including selecting the cast from video auditions submitted to the site to selecting the final move poster design. 

It will be really interesting to see how these projects pan out, there’s a great deal of scepticism surrounding anything like this, but I don’t think it will be long before we see more traditional brands pushing the community/brand relationship even further in 2009.

Tags: brand, caterham, collective intelligence, community, crowdsourcing, dell ideas storm, marketing, mystarbucksidea, perkins' 14, project splitwheel, starbucks

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4 comments so far

1. Mark 5 Jan 2009

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   Nice post and good pointer to the future. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the lit about how to manage creative nets involved - curious to see how the current accepted wisdom gets tested by example…

2. Joe Heath 5 Jan 2009

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   Thanks Mark…anything particular worth reading?? Think Ebbsfleet United is another great example of crowd control. myfootballclub.co.uk, interestingly enough they’ve got a smaller group of active community members who have a greater deal of control and involvement, do you think it’s all about relinquishing the right amount of control and managing this group that will determine success?

3. Ed James 5 Jan 2009

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   Unfortunately, despite the massive hype, Project Splitwheel has been postponed due to a lack of any commercial backing. It appears that whilst Caterham have agreed to become involved once The Project is finalised, they won’t be putting any cash on the table to help get PS underway.

   Although the PS forums are still active, there has been a remarkable drop in posts and although I’ve suggested that the PS operators try taking the concept to a manufacturer willing to truly back it, they have declined to even consider this.

   So much for “Power to the People” . . .

4. Ben Weeks 5 Jan 2009

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   To me crowd sourcing is often code for “fear of making a decision.” Why be creative or take risks when we can outsource responsibility for both to a bunch of random strangers?

   That said-it is possible to design a good system that invites more people into a process of self expression. Many people love to customize their favourite brands. This is a nice example of a well designed structure. (”Crowd sourcing” seems too unfocused a term for whatever this is though.)

   http://work.canneslions.com/design/?award=1