User Generated Change

I have a very interesting family tree—you know those kinds with the multicolored bark that kind of looks like camouflage? Yeah, that’s me. You see, my grandfather had 4 children and then divorced my grandmother to marry an African American woman. He had another son with her and died shortly thereafter. My two grandmothers then became great friends. So, growing up I had an African American great grandmother (aptly called “Granny”) who lived to be 100 yrs old. It was only when she was in her last few years in an assisted living community near my university that I visited with her as an adult. There she sat, a shrinking, frail women and she’d tell me the most animated, amazing stories of the segregated south with lynchings during her childhood and the advent of first automobile. Perhaps the more unbelievable thing, however, was when we were finished for the afternoon, she’d go back to typing on her Mac computer and making calls on her wireless phone like it was no big deal.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, because it shows how much people can change in a lifetime. Yes, technology is moving at an ever-quickening pace and maybe we young’ins rely a little too heavily on the internet, but Granny’s grandparents were slaves and she if she can learn to embrace the personal computer at 85, we too can find the best in web 2.0 and user generated content.

I admit, user generated content is now happening at such a rate that it can be overwhelming, but I’ve always had to do a little research or browse a few sites to find the information I was looking for. Is it a change? Yes. Are big changes easy? Not usually.

I believe people still want to read what real experts have to say, but they also like options, so being able to choose from a variety of informative voices definitely has its positives. As my middle school teacher harped, you must always consider the source. Additionally, new technology tools in the hands of experts can truly have a profound impact on the direction of social media, not to mention generate substantial revenues.

While I feel web 2.0 and 3.0 will truly make our world better, I can’t help but wonder that with all of these new technology trends and tools changing so quickly and everyone online, who is the “real expert” anymore?

Crowdsourcing: Great Expectations or Great Exploitations?

In the true spirit of crowdsourcing, I debated long and hard about posting this assignment to Mechanical Turk to see how little I could pay to skip out on it. But alas, my integrity insists and you are stuck with little ol’ me instead of a brilliant Indian computer programmer or a dashing Turkish dancer, both of whom I’m sure would not only be much more eloquent writers, but also more knowledgeable on the subject of crowdsourcing. After all, every major corporation’s doing it. Heck, isn’t that what most blogs are today too—someone jamming a bunch of virtual heads together by sprinkling some opinion between a crowd of links? Well, maybe not quite, but I’m graduating with an MBA in just a few months and the economy is lower than my old plumber’s pants, so this "source it to the crowd" buzz has made me a bit uneasy—should I have majored in Crowd Sorcerer or maybe Lead Crowdsourcing Consultant? As if the reality of unemployment isn’t bad enough, now we’ve got compete virtually for 10 cents a HIT (on a good day)? Is this really where jobs are headed with the advent of the internet?

I mean, I get it; I have always been a fan of the “two heads are better than one” idea. Look at the success of Wikipedia, who doesn’t find it useful at one time or another? But I have to question whether crowdsourcing will actually prove to be more helpful in cutting US corporate research costs or harmful in eliminating US jobs via the web. After all, crowds are highly susceptible to “mania” and if a fire breaks out…stampeding. What happens then and who is responsible?

So yes, the idea that gathering input from a wide array of sources will result in a better end product is a good one, but until virtual task requesters opt to file taxes and enforce a set of guidelines to protect against the exploitation of workers, I’m afraid many crowdsourcing applications will become “virtual sweatshops.”