People-Powered Products
Expanding on the quick thought I posted this morning, I’m on the hunt for more examples of people-powered products. In order to qualify, a project needs to meet three key criteria:
- Include Community Tools
That means community members can make stuff that’s integral to the product - not just comment on the “official” stuff. - Embrace the Wisdom of Crowds
That means members can collaborate, not just producing stuff but also editing and judging what’s been produced. - Produce a Physical Object
That means the end result of the collaboration produces a tangible product. It doesn’t necessarily have to be for sale (but it helps).
For example: In Threadless, members create the designs (#1), collaboratively vote up the best ones (#2), and then can buy the resulting products (#3).
Close but no cigar: In Lulu, members create books (#1) and can buy them (#3), but there’s no collaboration: A member can only publish their own stuff. One could argue that their Top Sellers page is a product of the wisdom of crowds, but that’s only monitoring what’s been published, not what gets published.
Also close but no cigar: In Wikipedia, members can create pages (#1) and edit each other (#2) but the project produces no output besides the website itself.
Get the idea? Can you name any projects that fit all three of the criteria for People-Powered Products?
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