The Ministry Report: Crowdsourcing

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Crowdsourcing

"Goodbye, experts. Your services are no longer required." That's the basic gist of this Wired article that explores the concept of crowdsourcing. What is crowdsourcing?

When a movie shot by 50 fans of a rock group with 50 Hi-8 video cameras makes it to the box office. (I won't give a link--the name of the movie is objectionable, to say the least.)
When SportingNews.com made its reader blog community--not articles written by its own staff--the heart and soul of its Web site.
When Threadless.com solicits t-shirt designs from its customers--and makes $20 million selling the t-shirts.
When financial services company Marketocracy, a community of 60,000 online stock traders, tracks the decisions of its top 100 portfolios to set the investment strategy for its mutual fund. (Its index has outperformed the S&P 500 in 11 of the past 17 quarters.)

Businesses are recognizing that the customer is more likely to purchase a product that he or she has had input in creating. How does this apply to church? I call it the democratization of ministry. Congregants want to be involved in doing church--not just watching church. For example, my home church sometimes places mics in the congregation for worshippers to share prayers and biblical passages at certain times during the service. Since the service is broadcast over the Internet, those watching on the Web are also given the opportunity to contribute in this way (prayers and passages are displayed on the video screen or broadcast over the P.A.). All this creates a tapestry of ministry from the platform, the pew and around the world. Sounds a little like the first-century church, doesn't it--enabled with a little 21st-century technology (1 Cor. 14:26)?

# posted by Matt Green : 11:57 AM

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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Crowdsourcing

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