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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.

It’s time for another official midVentures event. June 4th on the midVentures terrace.
6pm - 9pm

This event will be more than a simple meet and greet. midVentures has invited crowdSPRING.com, ThePoint.com, InklingMarkets.com, and Cameesa.com to lead a discussion about one of my favorite topics: practical crowdsourcing.

Our goal with midVentures is both to provide ‘venture development’ as a technology provider, but also to host new venture discussions as a public think tank. That is why I have invited some of Chicago’s greatest minds in business, technology, and media to collaborate around solving problems by launching tech startups.

This year I ask the question: How can we bring the crowds into your company?

Crowdsourcing: “the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call” - Source: Wikipedia

Here are some questions that we at midVentures often bounce around- I hope these questions can inspire the conversations that create new startups.

• Will crowdsourcing work permanently blur the line between the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of an organization?
• How do organizations jump-start a community of supporters and customers who directly contribute to their activity and promotion? Should companies pro-actively organize the public or is the public ’self-organizing’?
• When is the crowd smarter than the individual at solving a problem with tools such as inklingmarkets.com or innocentive.com?
• Noting the current economic conditions, what new web apps should tap the potential of an extremely talented but under-employed workforce?
• Will crowdsourcing and the lowered cost of ‘finding the right people’ cause professionals to become more or less specialized in their skills?

That’s off the top of my head. I hope the midVentures crowd brings some ‘applied crowdsourcing’ questions.

Recent news around the internet has focused on forcing users to pay for content, as information giant Rupert Murdoch has declared that within a twelve month period his network of websites will charge for access. Nothing creates more controversy on the internet than taking away the ability of users to get what they want for free. It’s akin to kicking them in the shins, and they are having none of it.

Comments on the issue from users generally have a single theme: content should be free. More so, that they should be able to run ad blocking software, thus removing all hope of monetizing that user. The site creates the content, pays for other people access it, and then recoups no money. That is a difficult proposition.

However, this is how large swaths of the internet work, with limited to no monetization opportunities. This is a subject of constant debate in the midVentures headquarters, and there is no consensus. Some of us feel that information must be open to all, and some of us know how a budget works.

Either way, it is going to be a very interesting year, especially if Rupert goes through with his plan. If he does use the nuclear option, expect the internet to be changed forever, in a way that you might not like. What do you think?