Blogsourcing

I recently Googled the word “Blogsourcing” to see what would come up.  I found this:

“The practice of news gatherers outsourcing to blogs the quotes they would usually get from interviews with qualified sources. It’s easier to find online a quote from a blogger than to wait for a conversation with someone in a position of authority.”

What I have in mind is actually blending the idea of crowdsourcing with using blogs to refine an idea.  Thus coming up with the idea of “Blogsourcing”

Wikipedia says this about Crowdsourcing:

“While not a new idea, it is becoming mainstream. Open source projects are a form of crowdsourcing that has existed for years. People who may not know one another work together online to create complex software such as the Linux kernel, MySQL database, and the Firefox browser. In recent years Web 2.0 technology has evolved to allow non-technical people to participate in online projects.”

Building upon ideas in the blogoshpere is nothing new.  Actually, it's a hallmark of how the Social Network operates.  I’ve been using this blog to help refine my own thinking.  Did this recently on the “Influence Ripples” and "Levels of Influence" posts.  I wanted to create a really simple visual to capture that process.  Essentially the "process" went something like this.

Friday: Had a e-mail conversation with Mack Collier about the “A-lister” phenomenon.
Friday Night: Posted visual to blog with idea for future presentation.
Saturday: Idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.
Saturday Night: Post revised idea based off of ongoing discussions of original idea.
Sunday: Revised idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.

In the end, I’m using my judgment to make the final call that best fits my needs—but the takeaway is that I received valuable feedback from an engaged and qualified body of people which helped me take an idea and make it better.  This is something that companies need to be thinking seriously about.  “R&D” does not have to be a huge expensive undertaking that only happens in labs.  With the use of a Social Network tool like Typepad (or for something more robust, like Basecamp) you can publish in seconds and harness the strength of virtual communities (or even your employees) to discuss, validate and improve upon ideas.  E-mail cannot do this.  Neither can surveys.  Food for thought.

Comments

[Mack Collier]

"This is something that companies need to be thinking seriously about. “R&D” does not have to be a huge expensive undertaking that only happens in labs."

The problem is DA, and I think we can both speak from experience here, until you are IN this space and blogging, you have NO idea what potential this medium holds. That first time that you fire off a quick post before heading to bed and then wake up the next morning to see that 40 blogs picked it up overnight, THAT'S when the light bulbs go off. What makes blogging so valuable for idea incubation is that this is a form of media where the exchanging of ideas (linking) is rewarded and encouraged! That's the key.

[CK]

Great post/visuals. Pharma has been doing this to some extent through their 'innovation networks' and academia with the Web for sometime. Still far from mainstream.

Mack is correct on one of the issues (since they're not in this space they don't understand what they're missing, etc.) but the other is ingrained: companies are used to keeping their ideas close to their vest and guarded at all costs. Only time they're really sharing ideas is through focus groups (which rarely give objective, advancing feedback). To companies, sharing ideas equals risk in their mind. Thus, they need to start understanding how social networks actually decrease risk.

They need to see how well it's working for others (early adopters, per se) and then take the leap. We've got a while before that happens but it's a good exercise to identify those companies that are using blogsourcing and social media to decrease risk, increase revenues and turbo-charge innovation. Then more will understand that the benefits indeed outweigh the risks (they'll like that risk-benefit ratio :-).

[Gavin Heaton]

I guess this is what we used to call a "community of interest" ... but with a twist. It is not around interest that the community gathers, but around ideas (possibly not the case with the more high profile bloggers) and the potential and excitement that occurs when you CONNECT ideas (yours with everyone else's).