In our line of work, we know innovation is not possible with a mob. Crowds need more than a platform and a connection to a brand; crowds need a sense of community...

323 Media is a video production firm that started in mid-2011. They are a three-person group based in Columbia City, Indiana. This is the story of how this team is cranking full-speed-ahead, thanks to crowdsourcing.

Microtasking, citizen science, crowd contests... the potential of distributed labor and crowdsourced idea generation is becoming clear to government agencies and NGOs. Although we sometimes perceive governments as being slow to adopt new technologies on this "series of tubes" we call the Internet, the social-momentum behind crowdsourcing is forcing them to take notice and get proactive about embracing these new, open methods of communication, innovation and productivity.

Crowdsourcing changes the locus of control. It changes the point where we control processes, organizations, and businesses. To demonstrate how this works, I'll compare crowdsourcing to music.

We all did our part. I, like many others, was in New York during Hurricane Sandy. Wow! I've been in New York for many years. I saw the blackout, the winter of 2010, the blizzard of '96. None of those came close to what Sandy brought to this city. Luckily everyone I know was safe (though some displaced), and though Lucky Ant offices did not have power for a week and our servers went down, we can't help but count our blessings.

People are jumping into crowdsourcing assignments with a delightfully increased regularity, which is great for all of us in the crowdsourcing business. But not everyone on the client side is doing a great job of executing on these projects or assignments. Here are five tips for marketers, agencies, or other clients to use to successfully execute crowdsourcing assignments more effectively, and with greater results. I call them my Five C's!

A growing number of global brands have embraced crowdsourcing in many aspects of marketing and innovation practice. Businesses understand how the power of social groups and technologies can help them connect meaningfully with people and develop strong bonds of loyalty, yielding both insight and action. Increasingly, the public sector is following suit − the same processes and technologies can connect consumers with a brand and citizens with their governments.

It's a $133 Million dollar industry - and I'll prove it. This is quite a bit different from the reports you may see that claim it's $1.5 Billion. In March of this year I contacted the top 20 crowdfunding companies. I collected the total amount of money each platform raised & compiled it into a crowdfunding market report. The total raised reported directly from the founders of these companies: $133 Million.

When I was in college I took a very interesting course on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of crowds. We studied crowd mentality both in psychology and politics. We looked at how crowds formed and what happened when they did.

When Jeff Howe coined the term “crowdsourcing” as a pun on “outsourcing,” he gave us a useful shorthand that helped explain our field: like outsourcing, but with a crowd. Simple. Plus, in the business world, outsourcing was seen as a great success story, making lots of money for lots of companies (including Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s former employer, Bain Capital). The association was helpful and, for the most part, positive.