Read/WriteWeb has a nice write-up on the latest players in the crowdsourcing space. The post provides a helpful breakdown of projects across three areas: creation, prediction and organization.
I personally find those companies involved with "creation" the most compelling and have been closely watching the development of Cambrian House (among others). I was interested to read how CrowdSpirit is embracing the Cambrian House model but in the consumer electronics space (rather than software). This is an ambitious plan as managing issues around manufacturing and distribution will be a challenge. Their plan for providing incentives for participation is not clear - but they seem to suggest they will have a model for rewarding contributors (perhaps similar to Cambrian House).
I do wonder if these models are limiting their growth through the centralized role of decision-making. For instance, with Cambrian House the community votes on the ideas and then only the most popular get vetted (and possibly developed). What if instead Cambrian House provided a platform for the community to organize and develop all ideas (as long as there was passionate leadership and enough community participation to move them forward)? In other words, if three people want to contribute in the development of an idea...why not let them use the platform?



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