Working in a corporate environment, new ideas can sometimes seem too radical evenafter the changes of the last decade. The article by John Kapaleris is one of those: a guide to open innovation; assessing your internal capabilities and, if they are lacking, turning to potential sources outside. Kapaleris describes this outsourcing process as crowdsourcing, though I am unconvinced by the parallel with Wikinomics that he makes. There is a tendency for commentators to generalise about developments on the internet and lump disparate trends together.
Kapaleris identifies a simple lesson: companies are aware of external sources of expertise beyond the corporate firewall, and consider the costs of contact to be sufficiently low that new knowledge can be brought on board. Of course, this requires accessibility on the part of the company, and identification of the right partner. Not really crowdsourcing but an economic process that is fostering a new intermediation niche. If the information broker cannot exist inside the company, then they can exist outside. Kapaleris provides a list of candidates whose business model is to link need with expert.
Will these models ever do more than nibble round the edges of consultancy business? That would require a lot more deconstruction with existing firms, and we will have to wait a few years...