The challenge with an audiobook based on a newly coined word is that after about five hours the reader gets the point--and there's still another five hours to go. In this case, WIRED reporter Jeff Howe has coined the term "crowdsourcing"--when a company takes a task previously done by employees and outsources it in the form of an open call to a large, undefined group of people. (Think Wikipedia and iStockphoto.) Explaining the concept works fine in print as the reader can skip about, and it works even better in Howe's crowdsourcing blog, but it doesn't seem to gel in audio. Considering that Howe speaks publicly--frequently and quite convincingly--on the subject, the audiobook might have been better served by his narration rather than Kirby Heyborne's meticulous and careful delivery. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
Times (London)...
"An informed and enthusiastic guide to the new collaborative creativity."
BusinessWeek...
"A welcome and well-written corporate playbook for confusing times."
Newsweek...
"An engaging mix of business, sociology, organizational theory, and technology writing and fits the mold of Malcolm Gladwell's perennial bestseller, The Tipping Point."
Michael Useem, professor of management and director of the Leadership Center at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide and The Leadership Moment...
"While small groups have often been the foundation of great performance--think SWAT teams and Skunk Works--Jeff Howe has made the compelling case for the power of far larger communities of interest. He shows in Crowdsourcing--with rich illustrations from Google and InnoCentive to Threadless and Wikipedia--that the right community with the right incentives can often invent, write, and run research and business initiatives more effectively and less expensively than traditional enterprise."
Steven Levy, author of Hackers and The Perfect Thing ...
"Beyond the wisdom of crowds is the work of crowds, a powerful and transformative source of creativity and an economic engine that defies traditional rules. Jeff Howe's guide to crowdsourcing--to use his perfect coinage--is insightful, fun, and indispensable to those who want to understand, or participate in, this amazing phenomenon."
Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody...
"Jeff Howe has captured a complex and vital change in the business landscape: in the next few years, your customers could become your collaborators, or your competitors. His ability to weave story and strategy together makes Crowdsourcing a readable and indispensable guide to this new world."
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