CROWDSOURCING Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business

The challenge with an audiobook based on a newly coined word is that after about five hours the reader gets the point—and there's still another five hours to go. In this case, WIRED reporter Jeff Howe has coined the term "crowdsourcing"—when a company takes a task previously done by employees and outsources it in the form of an open call to a large, undefined group of people. (Think Wikipedia and iStockphoto.) Explaining the concept works fine in print as the reader can skip about, and it works even better in Howe's crowdsourcing blog, but it doesn't seem to gel in audio. Considering that Howe speaks publicly—frequently and quite convincingly—on the subject, the audiobook might have been better served by his narration rather than Kirby Heyborne's meticulous and careful delivery. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2009]