Outside-inside learning: Wisdom of wise crowds
Wisdom of wise crowds and the limits to Co-creation
Post also available as podcast
The model of co-creation is assuming that companies make use of consumers in the innovation process, by informing and empowering active consumers to create value. It is assumed that the innovation success ratio is increased by using this model. Underlying this assumption is the concept of the wisdom of crowds, i.e. that aggregate information as basis for decisions is better than information from single sources (even when those sources are experts in the field). The Web 2.0 mania is exploiting this concept, claiming that user content creation is a successful outcome of this. Well-known examples are Wikipedia.org and YouTube.com.
After some recent participation statistics the question of validity arises: Is it really true that usage of crowd-knowledge is enhancing your innovation capabilities as a firm?
