it's a small world

wednesday's class really struck me as well, heidi...i especially loved the virtual choir video and mentioned it to several people throughout the day. surprisingly (to me), they had already seen it! i think that says something in itself.

the idea of crowdsourcing really stuck with me because it's something we experience every day, and i highly doubt the majority of the population knows what it means. it is when an individual obtains information or ideas for a specific project or task by employing others (unpaid or not), especially via the internet. we talked about it in a variety of different ways-creative, business and academic. i was somewhat shocked to learn the hierarchy of crowd laborers (drones, commonly skilled, experts). mostly, i'm just constantly amazed at how expansive digital culture is and how much i don't know about it! even learning about websites like threadless and kompoz is a new experience for me. 

i was mulling these ideas particularly this weekend as my husband and i finished a DIY project that was inspired and created via...you guessed it, crowdsourcing. cory found the idea on pinterest, a platform that allows one to pin different ideas, crafts, recipes, you name it. we then used google to look at many blogs to formulate a blueprint of what we were going to make and what supplies we would need. and thus we created our pallet headboard! none of this would be possible without the internet and the ideas of others, allowing us to design our own version of a pallet headboard. 

incidentally, the pillows were inspired by pinterest too!

 when dr. burton mentioned manuals we've found online that allows us to do things ourselves, i was thinking that that is probably my favorite aspect of the internet. i love being able to look for whatever i need on the internet, which i've realized i do everyday. in fact, i can see the generational gap between my mom, grandma and i through recipes. my grandma uses only her cookbooks. my mom has tons of cookbooks, but tries to type her recipes on the computer and finds them online occasionally. and i go to various blogs or google to find recipes every day. now, i'm not exactly collaborating with anyone when i look for recipes, but i do find them from other people and post them on my personal blog (with sources). and pinterest, i think, is a whole community devoted to making the world a more beautiful and delicious place. do any of you experience crowdsourcing on  a personal, business or educational level?