Crowdsourcing infographic: Choosing between fixed fees and hourly rates

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[This post first appeared on the Getting Results From Crowds book website]

One of the most important issues in using service marketplaces is choosing between fixed fees and hourly rates.


Click on the image for full-size pdf
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Announcement of Crowdsourcing Week: Singapore April 2013

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Crowdsourcing is moving to the center not just of discussion, but of business and society. That is becoming increasingly evident through the events being run as well as in what companies are doing.

Moving beyond the increasing proliferation of conferences and workshops on crowdsourcing (for which I am partly responsible), we are now seeing a full week devoted to the topic, in Singapore in April 2013. It is a great choice of location given the pace of growth on both supply and demand for crowds in the region.

Details are at the Crowdsourcing Week website and part of the press release is below. Full disclosure: I am on the advisory board for Crowdsourcing Week and will be a keynote speaker. It promises to be an exciting event.

Crowdsourcing Week: Embracing The Power of The Crowd – Singapore, June 3-7, 2013
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The 14 ExaTrends of the Decade

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We released our Map of the ExaTrends of the Decade a while ago now. However the decade is still young, and all of these ExaTrends (which is a MegaTrend cubed) have a long way yet to play out.

We have created a set of slides to make the 14 ExaTrends easier to read and understand. The slides are better viewed in large size, so either view full screen or go to the slides on Slideshare.

14 ExaTrends of the Decade

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Debate: The Ethics of Crowdsourcing

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For many who come across the idea of crowdsourcing in its many forms, their first thoughts are about the ethical issues. As such, in writing Getting Results From Crowds, it was important to address the ethical domain rather than ignoring or glossing it.

We address the ethical issues of crowdsourcing in Chapter 5 on Relationship Value, offering Points and Counterpoints on a number of the major ethical issues in the field.

To bring the debate to life we have created a video providing some of the arguments on each side.


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VIDEO – ExaTrends of the Decade: Reputation Economy

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A while back we released our Map of the ExaTrends of the Decade.

We are now releasing a series of short videos delving into the ExaTrends, starting with Reputation Economy.

Some of the issues covered in the video include:
* The amount of data we have now is enabling the measurement of reputation
* Influence and Reputation are different
* Klout, PeerIndex and their peers do not measure reputation, they are trying to measure influence.
* Other players in the emerging reputation space include LinkedIn, Honestly.com and CubeDuel
* Service marketplaces such as Freelancer.com, oDesk and Elance have internal reputation measures
* There is immense value to reputation measures, across many aspects of business
* Reputation is becoming central to business and society

You can download the full Map of the Decade including descriptions of each ExaTrend by clicking on the image:
MapoftheDecade_500w.jpg

7 compelling reasons to become self-employed

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I recently noticed that a blog post I did back in 2008 on the joys of self-employment has been getting some solid traffic lately.

In the post I ran through the history of how I came to work for myself, and gave 7 reasons that matter to me for why I infinitely prefer to work for myself rather than someone else. Part of working for myself is building companies that go far beyond me, but the motivations of doing MY thing rather than being employed by someone else are the same.

The 7 reasons I love working for myself are worth restating:

1. My life is completely free-form and open-ended. I can – and do – regularly wake up in the morning and decide to change what my business does and how I do it. If you are in a job – even if it’s as CEO – there are constraints and job definitions to work within.
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Case study: Using project management for effective crowdsourcing

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[This post first appeared on the Getting Results From Crowds book website]

One of the most important implications of organizations shifting to crowdsourcing and crowd work is the need for effective project management structures. We cover Project Management in Chapter 14 of Getting Results From Crowds.

The chapter opens with an excellent case study of how Nick McMenemy uses crowd platforms to drive his startup Virdium. I gained plenty of insights and new ideas in my interview of him, which I condensed into the case study, reproduced below. I’m sure you’ll find useful ideas in there.
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Remote Sex: the perfect Valentine’s Day present

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Our online magazine FutureofSex.net explores this fascinating aspect of the intersection of technology and society.

The rise of our connected world has implications that reach into almost every aspect of our lives. I did many Valentine’s Day interviews back in 2003 and 2004, talking about proximity dating, one way in which technology is changing how we connect romantically.

This year we thought it would be worth putting out word to media about the fascinating topic of remote sex, as it is a topic in which their audience will very likely be interested. Here is our press release:

Remote sex – how distant lovers can still be intimate this Valentine’s Day

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Launch of new keynote speaker website

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The site rossdawson.com has long been where I point potential clients for my keynote speaking and other personal work. As usual it has taken longer than planned, but we now have just launched an entirely redesigned website.


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Which countries have the most Twitter users per capita?

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Recently web monitoring firm Semiocast published a list of the top 20 countries in number of Twitter accounts.

Not surprisingly US was top with 107 million users, with Brazil coming in second at 33 million and Japan next at just under 30 million.

I am always interested in comparing the degree of social media engagement across countries, so we did a simple analysis to find out the proportion of each country’s population that has a Twitter account, as below.


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