Why we wrote Getting Results From Crowds

By | November 26, 2011

One of the reasons it is so good to have Getting Results From Crowds out is that it has been many years in the planning.

Back since the late 1990s, when Malone and Laubacher published The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy in Harvard Business Review and soon after Elance was launched, I have closely followed the world of distributed work as one of the most important drivers of change in business and society.

In my 2002 book Living Networks I made close to a dozen references to what we currently call crowdsourcing, including being the first of many business books (four years before it was used as the opening story in Wikinomics) to describe the Goldcorp challenge, and mentions of Elance, InnoCentive, and Procter & Gamble’s Connect & Develop program, before any were well-known.

I started using a variety of crowd work platforms a decade ago, and crowd work is now central to the AHT Group of companies.

As I observed the rapid growth of crowdsourcing I saw that much of the potential of crowdsourcing simply wasn’t being tapped, largely because companies didn’t really know how to go about it, and often gave up if they didn’t get good initial results. There was clearly a need for a guidebook that would help use crowds well.

After considering a few different frames for a book on crowdsourcing, including a broader strategy book on the implications of the talent economy, I decided the best book to do would be an intensely pragmatic guide for those wanting to get results from using crowds. It feels great to have it done. :-)

Flickr credit: josef.stuefer

  • http://twitter.com/JerryMacnamara Jerry Macnamara

    Ross and Steve -

    Congratulations on the publication of your book. The widespread adoption of outsourced platforms makes the transition to “Companies of One” a reality whereby each person can inject their specific talent onto a project. And, with communication tools like BasecampHQ and Skype, the geographic and temporal boundaries of location and time zones have evaporated. Indeed, the world is flat again; globalization has made the world infinitely smaller.

    When I consult with business owners and leaders, they are amazed at the potential of globalizing their work force to drive down costs and increase reach and efficiency. This aspect of business, which leaders believed were reserved for corporate behemoths, is now reachable and attainable by companies large and small. But, it is not without its pitfalls…

    I look forward to reading your pragmatic guide and sharing the insights you garnered across a broad spectrum of interviews to develop best practices. Indeed, this is the future.

    Cheers!
    -jmac