Crowdsouring...on the radio

It just won't go away, and that's the point. Another podcast to download and listen to as Angelina Russo discusses crowdsourcing on what is yet another ABC Radio National program I've never heard of...I'm missing out aren't I?

By Design - ABC Radio National

This week it's crowd sourcing and the way in which this form of talking to each other and contacting each other through places like Facebook and Twitter, for example, is changing who we are. Major companies are using crowd sourcing to test and launch their products -- look at the current advertising by Smith's Crisps, looking for a new flavour and asking us to suggest one. What's this all about, and why would companies want to get so close to us?

Is crowdsourcing killing the traditional design industry?

I have a burgeoning interest in design...ok I lie...I love design, but now my burgeoning interest is being channeled into thoughts about exhibitions and design and a buzz word that keeps popping up is 'crowdsourcing'. Far from melting down strangers to make into mole (that's sauce for those non french speakers among us), or renta-friends schemes favoured by me in my early uni days (you know make friends with a random German/Brit/Canadian)...crowdsourcing appears to be asking the 'un-professional' to comment, engage, feedback or inform decision-making and creation of design, art etc etc. I've come across it in marketing wankery ('oh we crowdsourced that and X packaging test best'...aka a bad use of market testing or dare I say market research) but perhaps the most burgeoning context has been in relation to museum and gallery exhibitions. Here however we have another view on the explosion of crowdsourcing on design industry and the intermingling of the client/creator relationship. Another hero Angelina Russo takes up the debate....