Crowdsourcing is very often cited for the execution of simple tasks as part of larger jobs, but less frequently is it taken into consideration for the execution of activities of complex, continuous, critical enterprise core business processes. But it is being proven that this becomes a real and immediate option if the crowdsourcing process is able to compete with the outsourcing option that enterprises have.

Work principles such as crowdsourcing, along with the rise of social media, are shaping journalism by transforming the crowd from an unthinking herd into critical-thinking swarms of citizen journalists. Nowadays, anyone with the urge can share information, images, and video with news outlets or through online forums & add their own perspective.

At Crowdopolis 12 LA, CMO of GE's Healthymagination, Lisa Kennedy, discusses how the Healthymagination program aims to cure cancer with help from the crowd. Kennedy shares their experiences and lessons, pointing out that it takes a village to solve some of the world's toughest challenges.

I do more than just write about crowdsourcing; I happen to think a lot about it as well.  And, specifically, I think a lot about the future of crowdsourcing. Here are my top 3 bets on where crowdsourcing will take us and where we will take it in the next 5-7 years.

At Crowdopolis 12 LA, Senior Marketing Director, Stephen Paljieg, discussed how Kimberly-Clark uses crowdsourcing to let their community of Mom's develop new products. By letting the front-line of product users suggest products, Kimberly-Clark is building a diverse innovation team, R&D team, and a sales team.

Huge potential exists to harness the power of crowdsourcing for the study of society and human behaviors - the range of disciplines we call 'social science' that ranges from anthropology to sociology, politics to psychology.  But, so far, the crowd is failing to employ their power to these issues.

In an interview with Research Scientist, Manuel Cebrian, from the winning team of the DARPA Red Baloon Callenge & the Tag Challenge, he revealed an ominous prediction. He predicted that crowdsourcing, like other high-profile technologies (nuclear, genetic-engineering, etc.), is due for an event, a bad event, a catastrophe, no less.

There are many benefits, we are learning, to being part of a crowd; in less time than ever, we can achieve more creative, higher quality ideas from crowdsourcing contests like the Pepsi Refresh Project, pay for work to be done inexpensively (or for free) with microtasks on sites like Mturk, and get our questions answered more accurately on social search engines like Quora… but what does it look like when you take these benefits a little bit further? Things start to look strange, quickly…Cue the Twilight Zone Music…

Last week I was discussing the similarity crowdfunding projects have to the original Facebook games, with the Daily Crowdsource staff. Remember when your pre-timeline facebook page was filled with requests to join your fellow friends tackling angry mobsters & crop farming? The success of Facebook games took off through the tactic of encouraging participants to invite their friends. A brilliant move to grow the game company's audience, but a poor tactic for keeping friends.

Most startup companies usually face a lot of glitches especially in the initial phase of setting up a business. As a startup tech company, you may have a world-changing product and are ready for business to bring it to the world.  But if you cannot manage to obtain the funding you need to get up and running, the product is as good as nothing. As an entrepreneur, it is also equally important for you to make people see what makes your idea so special. If you cannot do so, the greatest of ideas and plans can come crashing down.