A November, 2006 article in Business 2.0 magazine by Melanie Haiken says it well, that we could think of crowdsourcing as a "giant, creative rave", and crowdcasting as a "private backstage party you can't get into if you're not on the list." Think of a company fishing for ideas. If it wants to tap the creative knowledge of outsiders (consumers), it can fish in the open ocean (crowdsourcing), or it can go to a stocked pond (crowdcasting).
Haiken's article mentions two businesses that are helping the corporate world embrace "open-source innovation", Idea Crossing and InnoCentive. I trembled when I first read the article, thinking someone had given birth to my idea (happens to 99% of ideas, doesn't it?). But time spent at each website helped me realize my plan for a ConsumerPassion community site is different from theirs. I applaud their entreprenuership and business models, which focus on facilitating crowdcasting competitions and "idea challenges" for corporations like IBM, HIlton Hotels, and Proctor and Gamble.
My focus, however, gravitates more toward crowdsourcing. And while this blog will cover the rise of both strategies, I think a site that attracts a wide audience, will be attractive to businesses in search of wisdom from a specific crowd. Numerous 'specific crowds' are likely to be found within a larger, diverse group of knowledgeable, innovative, early adopting and passionate consumers. And if those consumers are willing and enabled to dialogue, then companies can choose to fish the ocean, or fish a particular pond, for ideas and solutions. I intend to offer the ocean.
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