Crowdsourcing

Computerworld recently ran a cover page story on how businesses are using crowdsourcing to more quickly develop products and get feedback from target groups. Crowdsourcing is a method of using the Internet to allow multitudes of people to quickly give input to your organization via Internet-based software tools. Crowdsourcing can be used to get input from your customers on products, to do brainstorming from a larger group of people, or to simply increase customer loyalty by giving them a place where they can feel a part of your company. In a separate article written a couple of months ago, it is put this way:

Also compelling is the increasingly popular notion among companies desperate to stay competitive that the best, most direct and possibly cheapest sources of innovation lie outside the corporate walls, among customers and other previously hidden sources of talent.

One example of crowdsourcing given is Dell’s Ideastorm, where people can suggest ideas and then promote or demote the ideas. Dell examines the most popular ideas and, in some cases, implements them!

So how can this be used in Internet ministry? Would your church or organization have enough guts to give people the ability to give you suggestions? Would you be willing to think “outside the box” sometimes? Is there anyone doing this?