Beyond crowdsourcing

Crowd accelerated innovation is the latest TED talk. It's from TED boss Chris Anderson.

The idea is one of those big ones, a simple one that will stick with you for a long time... Online video radically changes the reach and speed of the improvement cycle. Things like dance, snowboarding and TED talks keep getting better, and faster, because artists see the best and improve on it. Even more than that, it requires you to top what's out there, or you'll be ignored.

The same thing has been done with scientific journals for two hundred years. Now, though, instead of a long cycle and a few readers, we have a nearly instant cycle and millions of 'readers'. Video scales, now. And to quote the other Chris Anderson, there's going to be a long tail of these video cycles.

Also worth thinking on: Chris is using the medium itself to do something that would have required a traditionally published book five years ago. His video will be seen by more than a million people by the end of the week--something he could never have achieved with a traditional method.