MIT Sloan Management Review

Online crowdsourcing platforms are growing at double-digit rates and are starting to attract the attention of large companies. Just as cloud computing offers unconstrained access to processing capacity and storage, the “human cloud” promises to connect businesses to millions of workers on tap, ready to perform tasks and solve problems that range from the simple to the complex. The article explores four new human cloud models: The Facilitator model, The Arbitrator, The Aggregator, The Governor.

Top data scientists often share three characteristics: they are creative, they are curious and they are competitive. Anthony Goldbloom, CEO of Kaggle, a company that hosts data prediction competitions, has figured out how to tap all three of these characteristics to help companies crowdsource their analytics problems.

A user’s guide to the building blocks of collective intelligence: By recombining CI “genes” according to the work required, managers can design the powerful system they need.

This website recently featured an essay by Henry Mintzberg arguing that executive bonuses don't work and should be scrapped.  But that doesn't mean all kinds of incentive compensation are ineffective.�

What’s “crowd funding”? It involves consumers investing small amounts of money (as little as $1) in the businesses of musicians or fashion designers whose products they fancy.

Two news items that capture some of the spirit of the times:

In a New York Times column, Thomas Friedman raises the question of whether this downturn may signal the end of an era of unsustainable growth.�

Innovation prizes are “experiencing a resurgence,” writes Jaison G. Morgan in a recent article in the journal Innovations.

Information markets, wikis and other applications that tap into the collective intelligence of groups have recently generated tremendous interest. But what”s the reality behind the hype?

Cisco yesterday announced the winner of its first global innovation contest, the I-prize. More than 2,500 contestants from more than 100 countries competed for prize money — by submitting ideas that could potentially form new billion-dollar businesses for Cisco.�

An interesting cover story in the June 2008 issue of Inc. magazine names a T-shirt company called Threadless "the most innovative small company in America."