Crowdsourcing platform? Please explain.

Imagine being able to bring contributors from all over the world to one place on the Internet, to create a new product, new brand or major event in 72 hours. Welcome to the world of 'crowdsourcing'.

Kluster is a website aiming to harness the power of online community collaboration to get stuff done. Kluster was initially built to facilitate large group decision-making during product development, marketing/advertising initiatives, and event planning. After some further thought, the developers realised that Kluster could be used for virtually any decision-making activity, with groups large or small.

Kluster members create a project with defined goals. A project could be a new product, an event, a marketing campaign, or virtually any goal that is better served by engaging a group of people. Projects are broken down into phases with small, manageable deliverables. Throughout each phase the community participates by posting 'sparks' (proposed solutions), enhancing, refining, and supporting proposed solutions to the phase’s goal. Phases can be public (allowing the entire world to influence the decision) or private (allowing a select group of your choosing to participate).

Rather than just choosing the most popular item, Kluster uses advanced algorithms to make decisions. All the activity and participation on Kluster is stored and analyzed. The data is used in the decision-making process. Each user's successes, failures, reputation, areas of expertise, and overall history are considered. This encourages users to earn respect, to act positively, and most importantly, enables extremely educated decisions to be made using real world logic.

To see a video of how is all works, click here.

The platform was demonstrated at TED (see previous blog post about TED here) where the event's attendees worked together to create a product prototype in 72 hours. (Rapid prototyping machines and a team of modellers are standing by.) The outcome was 'Over There', a game of global awareness inspired by a 2006 TED talk by prominent American philosopher, Dan Dennett. A community of 2,700 participants contributed over 1,200 ideas toward the successful development of the project.

Check out more information about crowdsourcing on Springwise.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

All About TED

Did you hear about the TED conference that happened at the end of February? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and it started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. The annual conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). Previous speakers have included Bono, Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com), Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jane Goodall etc etc...

TEDs mission is to spread ideas. TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. They've built here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. Have an idea? TED wants to hear from you.

The TED Conference is the heart of TED. More than a 1000 people now attend and the event sells out a year in advance. The content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world.

Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience.

An extension of the conference is the TED Prize, designed to leverage the TED Community's exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and, much more important, the granting of "One Wish to Change the World." After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference. These wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

To live the brand tag line 'ideas worth spreading', TEDTalks can also be accessed via TED.com giving everyone on-demand video access to the world's most inspiring voices.

So if you're looking for some big ideas, some inspiration - or have some of your own to share, make friends with TED.

Also check out Australia's REMO - an official merchant to the TED conference.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message