Crowdsourcing: Problem Solving in a Resource Based Economy

Good afternoon readers.  Today's entry addresses a concern often voiced by people when first introduced to The Venus Project and a Resource Based Economy.  The objection goes something like this, "Well, if no one has a job in a RBE who will solve the world's problems?" The answer lies in a modestly simple web 2.0 term,  first coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired magazine article entitled "The Rise of Crowdsourcing".  I've highlighted the term's wikipedia article overview and it's relevant portions below:


"Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. In the classic use of the term, problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—typically form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd also sorts through the solutions, finding the best ones." "... the winning individuals in the crowd are sometimes rewarded...with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction. Crowdsourcing may produce solutions from amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time, or from experts ... which were unknown to the initiating organization."


In my humble opinion, this evolution toward a crowdsourced problem solving paradigm, is key evidence that an RBE is not only possible but inevitable. Proof of concept can be found in a joint venture between Sony and WWF at www.openplanetideas.com or at www.openarchitecturenetwork.org . The question is, can mankind recognize it before the final collapse of the monetary economic system?

Jeff Howe on Crowdsourcing