New online tools for idea generation have been launched in recent years. Some tools are for internal idea generation against a particular corporate challenge. Nominal rewards are offered to employees who offer an idea that gains acceptance.
"Crowdsourcing" is the new term for an open version of online idea generation. Innocentive and others have pioneered the idea of tapping into the knowledge and inventiveness of people outside the organization. Companies offer substantial rewards for solutions to problems that they have not been able to solve internally.
My question is: why do people participate? Is it for the reward or the social currency that comes from being thought of as smart and/or cool? If the reward is nominal, why would I waste my time unless I thought I would earn greater recognition from my peers and others? Would people participate without the reward?
My view is that the creative process is intrinsically fun and rewarding. People enjoy solving problems or creating new things. The reward comes from participating with others in that endeavor. For many of us, the face to face interaction is the most rewarding. When that is impractical, I can still get satisfaction if I know the other participants. If it's totally anonymous, some of the emotional benefit seems to leave the game, at least for yours truly.
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1 comment:
Thanks for a great post on crowd sourcing. You're right on target as far as why people participate in solving these Challenges. From speaking to our base of 140,000 Solvers, I've found that there are several motivating factors behind why they participate. Even without a guaranteed reward, they love the "Challenge" of it, creatively and technically. They love the competition. And often they also find reward in working on challenges that really matter and can make a difference in someone's life.
Take John Davis for example - he solved a Challenge recently that was posted by the Oil Spill Recovery Institute, and his solution will be implemented to help clean up oil in Alaska. You can check out his story on our YouTube Channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/innocentiveinc
Regards,
Liz Moise
Marketing Manager
InnoCentive
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