Crowdsourcing. The wisdom of crowds. Outsourcing to the masses….the basis upon which Wikipedia was founded. Essentially a “Two heads are better than one” idea which the internet, naturally works well at facilitating.

The concept of crowdsourcing ideas is one that we predict will be even bigger in 2009. Crowdsourcing is a ‘two heads are better than one’ kind of approach, the idea that the wisdom of crowds prevails and collective intelligence creates bigger, better concepts and ideas. The most quoted crowdsourcing project is Wikipedia, and locally the social think tank Idea Bounty matches creatives with clients by sourcing creative briefs and ideas.

Studies and debate around web 2.0 and social media have reinforced many basic human psychologies, the behaviours are not necessarily new but the web has brought them to the forefront. A good example is the concept of crowdsourcing or mass collaboration, the most used example of crowdsourcing and the success thereof is usually Wikipedia…the concepts [...]

via Springwise
Ponoko manufactures products that creative consumers dream up. Users upload a design, and Ponoko makes the item and ships it to them, or to their buyers. Realizing that many consumers have great ideas for products, but lack the know-how to turn an idea into a manufacturable design, Ponoko has now added a clever new [...]