THE NEW DECISION MAKERS

How the collaborative web and crowdsourcing

in particular are encouraging 18-29 year

old males to shape & influence production

People have

always valued

information.

That information

has usually

been transmitted

from one source

to another to

another…

“The Wisdom of Crowds”

“When groups provide information in aggregate, you get better decisions than you would have had only a single member of the group contributed.”

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and

How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

Author: James Surowiecki

In the collaborative web…

1. Incremental improvements on ideas

2. Small sparks light a larger fire

3. Frequent interaction among teams

4. Multiple discovery is common

5. No ownership of the Web

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKQUZPqDZb0

Factors that brought about crowdsourcing

• Rise of amateur class in new mode of production: open source software

• Cheaper tools on a more powerful Internet – people have more power than ever (and more than companies might’ve wanted)

• Evolution of online communities: efficiently organized, economically productive units

Communities = crowds

“In the realm of information production, the community is beginning to rival the corporation for primacy.”

Jeff Howe

Crowdsourcing: Tracking the rise of the amateur

The big question now:

Who makes up those communities/crowds?

“But I thought everyone made up those communities…”

• Sense that all have access to Internet and online information society

• Reality?

3% of the world’s population has access to the Internet.

The hegemonic web?

“Many studies on the digital divide indicate the typical web user is likely to be white, middle- or upper-class, English speaking, higher educated, and with high-speed connections.”

Brabham, 86

What is the effect of communication technologies claiming to be worldwide but

actually being quite inaccessible to 97%+ of the world?

“Communication technologies claim to be erasing boundaries when in fact they may be creating and reinscribing the same hierarchies between rich and poor, male and female, young and old, citizen and non-citizen and, of course, First and Third World.”

Leda M. Cooks and Kirsten IsgroA Space Less Travelled: Positioning Gender in Information

and Communication Technology (ICT) Development

Creators & consumers of UGC

• Males are more active than females

• 18 to 29 year olds are the most active

Pew studies: “Annual Gadgets Survey 2007,” “Online Video,” “Usage Over Time”

Crowdsourcing

Better t-shirts. Better tomorrow.

Who’s actually designing on Threadless.com?

DESIGNER INTERVIEWS

Total: 89

Males: 72

Females: 12

Unknown: 9

More than t-shirts – real decisions

Dell Inc. decided to install Linux on its PCs as a result of high demand on IdeaStorm.com, its crowdsourcing site.

Who’s producing? Who’s shopping?

Labour. Production. Power. Money.

Content/Labour = Power

Something to think about

Crowdsourcing.typepad.com (Howe):

“The conventional corporation isn’t going away any time soon, but hegemony is certainly under attack.” (May 1, 2008)

Is this true? Is hegemony (the preeminence of one group over others) under attack? If not, what does Howe’s statement mean for those not in the position of power?

Something to think about

• Does a real problem exist re: gendered technology/Web-based tools – or am I just trying to pick a fight?