The Noble Wiki

According to Wikipedia, Crowdsourcing is a neologism for a business model that depends on work being done outside the traditional company walls: while outsourcing is typically performed by lower paid professionals, crowdsourcing relies on a combination of volunteers and low-paid amateurs who use their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D. The term was coined by Wired magazine writer Jeff Howe and editor Mark Robinson in June 2006.

On Saturday, during a SXSW interactive panel on "Commercialization of Wikis," Moderator Evangelo Prodromou, founder of Wikitravel, made fun of the crowdsourcing concept. He likened it to the popular fable, "there's a sucker born every minute" (that will do your work for you for free). Essentially, he believes crowdsourcing is exploitation.

Prodromou said, "Our job is to provide a platform for people who have information and for people who need information." He also said wikis, commercial and otherwise, need to have a noble purpose. Unlike blogs or social networking sites, wikis are not about ego and not about making friends, he said.