Jason Spector.com

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with fellow Pittsburgher, twitter pal and social media maven Michelle Chmielewski, otherwise known as the The Observing Participant.

We discussed many topics about crowdsourcing and social media, but the focus was primarily on how successful crowdsourcing coincides with a healthy respect for the “Three C’s” – the Client, the Crowd and the Competition.

During one of my many Southwest flights commuting up and down the east coast, I came across this article in Spirit, the in-flight magazine. Before you pass judgement, I’d like to state for the record that the magazine’s really pretty good. Plus, there’s not much else to do while I’m listening to the safety features for the hundredth time and waiting impatiently to turn on my laptop.

Anyway, there was an article about what Coca-Cola’s CEO Muhtar Kent does to get focused and stay on top of things as he watches over a company of over 92,000 employees in 200 countries. To manage his time and perspective, he spends an hour a day on some key tasks:

Crowdsourcing, once an innovation by a few forward-thinking companies and organizations, has spread into a diverse industry of firms working in ideation, design, development, philanthropy, customer service, venture capital funding – you name it. Do a simple search for crowdsourcing and you’ll see how many have popped up in the few years.

Recently, a new player entered the arena – the companies themselves.

Like Benjamin Franklin, fellow crowdsourcer Mike Martoccia is always ready with a quick piece of advice. During one of our many discussions about business, future trends, crowds and anything else that fascinates us, he threw this out to ponder:

I’m often asked the question, “What makes a great community?” My reply back is usually, “What makes a great community for you?”. No, this isn’t my subtle way of dodging the question, but my subtle way of forcing the person asking into a bit of truthful introspection about who they are and what environments they flourish in.