In my previous post I described MIT Technology Review article on tapping the crowd wisdom. In todays Financial Times there is a full page article on crowdsourcing, titled “The billion man research team”. It naturally applies to software development, but also to solving various organizational problems, to book reviews, to RandD using open innovation models. This is just the beginning of a trend, which, in my view, will develop into a massive innovation accelerator, globally. So companies that used to focus hard on developing competent staff, provide good working conditions etc. may at some point need to reconsider their business models. Simply, the law of large numbers would suggest that sourcing innovation from a billion people will be more successfull than from 100 people (OK, it may not apply to every area, FT writes that nuclear warhead design will probably not work in an open innovation model).

Something big is happening on the web, which will transform our lives. I do not think macroeconomists are aware of this process, not to mention politicians. I will keep watching and report on crowdsourcing from time to time.