The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crowdsourcing

by Aliza Sherman

Tap into the global talent pool.

Crowdsourcing leverages such social networking tools as Facebook and Twitter to tap into the power of many people to distribute one's work load or gain input. Aliza Sherman, crowdsourcing innovator, has helped her clients harness the incredible power of "crowd-think" and "crowd- do" to achieve goals as diverse as designing new products to test- marketing services to fundraising. In this guide, she explains the theory and practice of crowdsourcing and actually shows readers how to use it.

• A practical, prescriptive guide for those who want to put the ideas in such books as The Wisdom of Crowds and Here Comes Everybody into action.

• Step-by-step instructions.

• Insightful anecdotes from the world of crowdsourcing.

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Aliza Sherman is a Web pioneer and Cannabis Entrepreneur. Fast Company magazine recently named her one of the "Most Influential Women in Technology." Newsweek named her one of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet" after she founded the first woman-owned Internet company, Cybergrrl, Inc. and the first global women's Internet networking organization, Webgrrls International. Today, she is CEO and co-founder of Ellementa, the fastest growing cannabis wellness network for women.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well organized, clear, readable and informative guide to a process more really need to incorporate (think Facebook and Netflix and ComCast). The "why" of crowdsourcing, most important in my list, is thoroughly demonstrated, thank goodness, and the examples are revealing. Well written, no padding, and the examples are done so that as the social media scene changes, new sources and uses can be found because the underlying reasons for and how-tos of crowdsourcing are so well explained. Unexpectedly good for end users, those of us who do not crowdsource but would like to be crowdsourced, since the book gives us the power/know-how to contribute to a better consumer experience.