Crowdsourcing;make your taste count?

photo credit: Andres Rodriguez

Crowdsourcing is an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand costumers have more opportunities to produce, participate and influence their communities through their tastes, ( Fashion ) through their skills, ( Problem solving ) and by contributing to the internet in general.

The more information is out there, the more you participate on websites such as facebook and myspace, the more information is out there for marketers and companies to ascertain your needs and likes. The process isn't only passive; through the websites that i mentioned before, you can choose to vote, to participate in helping others make the best possible decisions on their art, their products or their opinion.

A producer of goods, commodities can now easily create a space where he promotes "drafts" of his product until he finds the one which is most popular. A journalist can try out a story, and rewrite it taking into account new perspectives and information that might have come out through user comments.

This is interesting as it means that the filters to products and creations are more varied. The creator is closer and more in touch with his audience or buyer than ever before.

However, this also means that there is a potential for things to start appealing to broader populations. In art, the art itself because less and less of a creation for art's sake but one for the consumer's sake. In journalism it means potentially writing material that will appeal to the most people's taste thus offering less challenging and disagreeable ideas which will could prevent certain important ideas from reaching the masses.

What's most likely to happen however, is a mix of both of these things. A readjustment of the way things are done but one which ultimately remains similar to the system now. Crowdsourcing creates the illusion that everyone is participating and creating more but it serves the producer is building a market as opposed to giving the consumer that much more of a say.