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This holiday rather than working, we decided to take a brief vacation and travel down the beautiful California coast. Only problem was by Christmas night we realized that we hadn't even opened those guide books we took out of the library or done any planning whatsoever -- and I was somewhat to hesitant to fly totally blind.
Would using simple crowd sourcing via social media/social networks be a faster, easier, and perhaps better way to plan this trip? After all, that's how teens these days plan their activities. And for that matter, how much advanced planning did we really need to do if weren't booking flights?
For an easy and simple experiment, I did the following:
(1) Created a google map with our route
(2) Set up a google document that anyone could edit and asked for tips about places to see, wildlife viewing, and restaurants.
(3) Sent out a tweet asking for suggestions and pointing to the document
Within an half hour, the document will filled with some fabulous tips. I did need to do some filtering and critical evaluation. I spent another half hour reviewing the the suggestions, cross-referencing with our guide books and sites like YELP, Trip Advisor, and Web sites. I also searched for some decent
So, here is a somewhat simple and easy recipe for getting input on plans. Maybe this works only for crazy people like me who might crowd source advice for their vacations, but I got a lot of value from it. It wasn't overwhelming or time consuming and I think it made for a better vacation experience.
How would you apply a simple crowdsourcing to your nonprofit's work?
Crowdsourcing is being used for bike planning in Blacksburg, VA. Local cyclists have been asked to map their daily commutes with a web application. The data collected will help the town plan and prioritize road improvements, to make commuting by bike safer and encourage more people to do it.
Posted by: Virginia Bicycling Federation | January 05, 2010 at 09:41 AM
Hi Beth, Thanks for sharing your experience. Your post makes me think that guide books (e.g., Lonely Planet) will have morphed into some hybrid (hardcopy/online) before too long - e.g., accepting real-time updates from travelers as they go about their journeys.
Posted by: Ben Ziegler | January 05, 2010 at 02:19 PM
Neat post. In Santa Cruz, crowdsourcing was used for one very interesting art installation that involved placing spotlights all to be turned on at a specific time. It was quite the success.
Posted by: Robyn McIntyre | January 05, 2010 at 06:18 PM
I like your views. Very interesting one. I visited California coast one year ago and it was very nice experience for me.
Posted by: Netflix | January 06, 2010 at 03:35 AM
this isn't a non profit story but a college student was here visting his parents who had moved here while he was away at school. he planned to be here about 3 weeks so on twitter he asked for fun and interesting things to do. He got lots of ideas and tweeted about his adventures, my guess he met with all kinds of people he never would have if he'd tried other forms of 'figuring out' what to do.
I enjoyed experiencing our city through the eyes of a new comer and he sounded like he had a great time. (I doubt he even thought of looking at a guidebook!) :) as always Beth, you are great. thanks so much,Deb Mourey
Posted by: Deborah Mourey | January 06, 2010 at 10:01 AM
This tradition has a long pedigree. Before my honeymoon in Greece in 1996, I asked for suggestions from online strangers about places to stay and things to do in the Greek isles.
I got a lot of valuable suggestions, and the technique was so novel at the time that I wrote a travel piece about it that got published in the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Newsday, Philly Inquirer, SF Examiner and elsewhere:
Cruising the Greek islands (with a little help from some Netheads)
http://jdlasica.com/travel/greece.html
I like the term crowdsourcing -- which didn't exist at the time -- better than Netheads. :~)
Posted by: JD Lasica | January 06, 2010 at 02:02 PM
Yes, crowdsourcing is a great idea with numerous possible applications. I'm currently working with a company, Squad Help, that uses this concept to help businesspeople find ideal domain names. Crowdsurfacing is an idea whose time has come, whether it's for personal or professional purposes.
Posted by: Megan Hussey | January 09, 2010 at 10:52 AM
I love this! We do the same thing, especially b/c traveling with three small children (as we do!) requires insights especially from those with similar experiences, and there aren't enough such people in our "real" world. Happy New Year, and happy birthday!
Posted by: Melinda Lewis | January 11, 2010 at 12:52 PM