Crowdsourcing and User Generation

With the direction that the internet is going, crowdsourcing is starting to become more prevalent. As far as customer input and what they would like to see going forward. Not only does it keep business more progressive but it also keeps them engaged with the product. Crowdsourcing is asking the input of a mass audience for a business or project, whether it is paid or unpaid, which is mainly used for the internet. For example, “in 2014, McDonalds decided to give their customers free reign and submit ideas for the types of burgers they’d like to see in store. They could create their perfect burgers online and the rest of the country could vote for the best ones.Once the winners were crowned, McDonalds released the burgers weekly, along with the picture and short bio of the creator.” One would summarize that customer input is revolutionary but others don’t think so, particularly those that author Megan McArdle of the The Blurring Line Between Amateur and Professional. “Media companies begin asking whether they really need to pay for content when so many people are willing to produce it for free. Insiders warn of the grave dangers that await us if society doesn’t restore the insiders to their previous, privileged position in society.” A retort to that might be that those whose job it is to come up with creative ideas for food businesses or toy businesses to keep customer engagement ‘what’s wrong with the people’s input’. Which is a fair point since if not for the people, how would business succeed.

Elijah Foster