Core77

Dell is just doing what some other companies - most notably Yahoo! - have already started doing; which is to say they're using a Digg-style system to get feedback.

By the way, I see the previous post still hasn't been sorted out. Still seems as if Dell intends to launch multiple brands as indicated in that memo; hence the design "languages".

I think the intent here is connecting with the Dell consumer more than it is to harvest idea's and not pay for them. By having consumers submit ideas to a database they can compare and build on the most frequently submitted ideas. Dell is getting a good idea of it core consumer user preferences, wants and need as well as making them feel like they have contributed, the end result is that they will feel more connected to the brand. This seems to be a growing trend that when managed correctly can be very successful.

Wired magazine had a few interesting observations about the rules of new labor pool in crowdsourcing. One of them speaks about using effective filters as most ideas as junk. So it will be interesting to see how Dell does it.

We also blogged about crowdsourcing in analytics and some interesting developments

http://diamondinfoanalytics.com/blog1/2007/02/23/crowdsourcing-analytics/