Hey midVentures. Our event last thursday was a big hit, with over 60 attendees and a panel discussion with crowdSPRING.com, ThePoint.com, InklingMarkets.com, and Cameesa.com which hopefully inspired many of us to pick up their apps and start utilizing crowd-powered work. My summary is below in the blog post….

Click here to see the event photos

Second, we have a new website. midVentures owes a debt of gratitude to Nate Kerksick, our go-to web designer who transitioned from design work on the Obama Campaign to assist our projects. Thanks to Zac Witte for the 48-hour turnaround on all css and html implementation.

Third, we have a new partner Ouethy Kadji. Read our stories here.

Summary of the June 4th Event

I initiated the talk with a brief summary of crowdsourcing. I defined crowdsourcing as assigning work to an undefined or unknown person / group of people, with an incentive or reward for the completed work. ‘What crowdsourcing is’ became a focal point a few times in the conversation.

I asked 3 core questions:

1. What type of work can I crowdsource?

2. When is collective intelligence more accurate than expert intelligence?

3. How can crowdsourcing help find get me more work?

These questions all circled around 1 core issue: what is the ’sweet spot’ for crowdsourced work with each application? Large or small projects? A large or small number of people collaborating? Does effective crowdsourcing require experts or the masses in order to uncover the best matches? Once a match is made (client and worker) do they leave the web system to sustain a relationship? Our audience asked a few questions regarding the efficacy of ‘crowd-sourced code’ vs. open source projects, the feasibility of the $10 billion chicago glass dome that will render winter obsolete, and the push-back from corporate staff who are worried their decision-making power is threatened by inklingmarkets.

This panel discussion definitely sparked more questions in my mind about the long-term potential of crowd-sourced applications within different industries. Perhaps a company could materialize from market demand and self-organize out of the crowds of professionals to produce a product or service. Unfortunately, the discussion ended before I could develop my idea.