Blog 2

I really liked Jimmy Wales' talk about the creation of Wikipedia. He spoke about how is goal of the website was to put an encyclopedia in the hands of everyone in the world. It is run on donations, and they have over 2 million articles in several languages. It is a truly massive example of crowd-sourcing in the realm of knowledge. 

The website is on 90 servers that are monitored and run by a stand-by crew of volunteers, and the the total monthly cost to run it is only $5,000!!!!

To me this is the most successful example of crowd-sourcing, that I have seen. Most of the other examples in the class were creative. Life in a Day, Star Wars Uncut, ect are all crowd-sourcing projects with the purpose of entertainment, as opposed to education. Though the in-class goal is for entertainment, I think that looking at a project as large and as successful as Wikipedia, can give the class some perspective on how the acquisition of material for the project can be structured.

I also think that the Johnny Cash project can lend some important methods for our project. Johnny Cash is a well-known muscian, and people are, and can be passionate about not only his work, but the work that they can include to that project. I feel that getting our 'crowd' enthused is important, because bringing together passionate artists can make room for more creativity.

Finally, the Forbes article, "The Myth of Crowdsourcing" presented a valid arguement. If there is too much individuality, then the entire 'crowd' is eliminated from the project. However, I feel (and made in my point in the Johnny Cash Project section) that its not about the AMOUNT of work that an individual does on a crowdsourcing project, but the quality. I think that it is better to ask one person to do ONE aspect of the film VERY well, then have them do multiple things half-heartedly.