Boston Crowdsourcing Event - May 5th

On Tuesday, May 5th, Jay is going to be on a panel discussing "crowdsourcing" as a business tool. Details of the event can be found here - and I've pasted a good portion of the discussion topics and participants below (for those of you who can't be bothered to click-through on the weekend).

As some of you know, Local Motors utilizes crowdsourcing to gather, develop and choose car design concepts.

Instead of writing the definition of crowdsourcing I will include a video. Here is Jeff Howe, the guy who actually penned the term, "crowdsourcing".






Jeff Howe is a journalist, writing for publications like Wired, and he is an author.

There are HUGE benefits to utilizing crowdsourcing, and to perk your interest I'll list a few as they relate to Local Motors:

- Crowdsourcing allows you to gather ideas, and in our case, designs, that you otherwise would have never gained access to. At Local Motors, ALL designers and enthusiasts and bakers and plumbers (basically - anyone) can submit design proposals. The community chooses which designs are best - not Local Motors.

- With customers as our guide, we will know that we are building only what our customers desire.

- Why hire a limited design team of 20 people when we could engage a design army of 2,500+? Our development time is much, much faster than that of traditional design studios.

And these are only a few of the benefits. To learn more, you should join Jay and the group from Ultra Light Startups on May 5th.

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Register!

May 2009 Entrepreneurs Forum: Crowdsourcing Business

Topics:

• What is crowdsourcing and how similar is it to open source?
• What are the benefits of crowdsourcing?
• What companies are using the model? How are they saving money? What results are they achieving?
• What is decentralize intelligence and how can it improve businesses?
• Why is crowdsourcing a disruptive business model? How are they changing the competitive landscape? What trends are emerging and how can these be leveraged to create more efficient systems?
• How do feedback loops relate to crowdsourcing? Will this model help produce better products and services?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages?
• Can crowdsourcing help save the automotive and financial industries?
• What are the most effective ways to build communities?
• How can companies utilize crowdsourcing to develop new products?
• What are the reasons behind uTest, Local Motors, and Acquia/Drupal's success?
• How can crowdsourcing be used to get to market quicker?
• How can crowdsourcing enhance quality assurance?

Panelists:

• Doron Reuveni, CEO & Co-Founder of uTest [Crowdsourced Software/Application Testing]
• John B. Rogers, CEO & Co-Founder of Local Motors [New American car company, crowdsourcing car design]
• Jay Batson, Co-Founder of Acquia [Open Source Drupal]
• Venture Capitalist: TBD

Moderator:

• Alex Lindahl, Boston Organizer of Ultra Light Startups

Event is in collaboration with the BU MBA Leadership Program, Eric Carlstrom, and College Mogul, a blog that provides resources for first time entrepreneurs.