Let your customers build your product
by PatrickMason
Image via Wikipedia
We have long been proponents of leveraging the energy of a crowd to get something done. Social media in effect, is this approach applied through technology, again and again. Many companies, however, are hesitant to open the gates too wide fearing the havoc an unwieldy crowd may unleash. Areas such as product development, finance and operations have long been the exclusive domain of the company itself.
Recently, however, there has been more and more examples or companies handing over these functions to “the crowd”, often with great results.
Recently, Google has adopted this approach in building out Google Maps. Google announced the ability to contribute to maps via Google Map Maker. Users have had the ability to share new map layers through My Maps, but this is the first time they can create maps from the ground up. Some restrictions apply, but basically Google is asking folks from a specific list of countries to help build maps. The list includes Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan, Vietnam, as well as the Caribbean nations of Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago.
As the Google Maps team puts it, these countries could “benefit tremendously from local knowledge and expertise that you and other map makers posses, and we’re excited to see how you put that to use.” What they should also point out is that Google can also benefit tremendously from these countries by harnessing their local knowledge to build Google a better product!
