Tag: crowdsourcing
Labour Party crowdsourcing digital policy ideas
How crowdsourcing is helping the London Riots clean-up
We've already seen two great examples this morning of how social media can be used as a force for good in the wake of the London riots (check here and here), but this one will perhaps re-affirm your faith in…
Encyclopaedia Britannica admits defeat – allows users to add content
Encyclopaedia Britannica has for years resisted pressure to join Wikipedia in allowing just anyone to submit content – relying instead on 100 full-time editors and 4,000 ‘expert contributors’. As a result, it’s slow to react to events and studies have shown that it’s comparably error-ridden .
In the next 24 hours, however, the Encyclopaedia’s website will begin accepting user-generated content. However, it still won’t be as free as Wikipedia – any changes or additions will have to be vetted by the site’s “experts”, and any would-be editors will have to register their real name and address(!) before being allowed to contribute.
Still, any changes made will eventually appear in the printed version of the Encylopaedia, which only gets reprinted every two years. I’ll stick with editing Wikipedia, thanks, and take my chances with the spammer police, endless bureaucracy and edit wars.
TECH BEEF 2008: Apple/Microsoft marketing war continues – Microsoft attempts to enlist the world
Ages ago, Apple released the “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” ads, which were hugely successful. Much more recently, Microsoft moved to reclaim “I’m a PC” from Apple’s negative stereotyping. Apple responded with some rather nasty ads criticising Microsoft for spending loads of money on marketing that didn’t mention the V-word (Vista).
Microsoft aren’t taking that lying down, though, and they’re attempting to enlist THE ENTIRE WORLD in their defence. They’re taking signups for people who are happy to say “I’m a PC” in an attempt to show the broad range and diversity of PC users, and also to contrast with Apple’s rather more limited demographic of users. People who sign up might feature in Microsoft’s internet, poster, and television ads…
