CrowdRules Blog

Legendary Jerry Greenberg Video Featured in CrowdRules Contest

Los Angeles, CA - August 23, 2007

An amazing video has surfaced featuring the legendary Jerry Greenberg, former Atlantic Records President. The video is a historical gem, as it was produced as an internal promotion for the rollout of new albums during 1973, including such classics as Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy", and The Eagles' "Desperado". It's an inside look at the excitement around then-new releases that were destined to become groundbreaking hits. It's a must-see for everyone in the record industry.

Mirage Music Entertainment is featuring the video on a challenge running on CrowdRules to find the best "insider" music videos or spoofs. Submissions for the challenge start Thursday Aug 23, 2007. Voting Starts Thursday Sep 13, 2007 and ends Monday September, 17, 2007.

The producer/submitter of the top rated video and one guest will be invited to an exclusive record industry party hosted by music industry insider Grayson Brulte of Mirage Music Entertainment.

CrowdRules is the world's first user-generated voting site. Based upon a patent-pending Collective Intelligence platform, CrowdRules can be used for music A&R, casting calls, citizen journalism, collaborative lists, and almost any other activity that requires unbiased collective decision-making.

Mirage Music Entertainment, headed by Jerry Greenberg, is currently in stealth mode. Expect big announcements soon!

Dave @ CrowdRules

Clinton Widens Lead Over Obama in Latest CrowdRules Poll

August 16, 2007 - Los Angeles, CA.

Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over Barack Obama in the latest CrowdRules poll ending August 15, 2007. CrowdRules, the user-generated voting site, asked its members which of the current top 10 candidates they believed most likely to win the 2008 presidential election. The surprise change from the previous poll was the 3-position drop in the rankings by Barack Obama. Rudy Giuliani moved ahead in the rankings, making a Clinton versus Giuliani race in 2008 more likely.

The complete rankings, including ranking change since the last CrowdRules poll completed on August 2nd, are as follows:

1. Hillary Clinton (no change)
2. Rudy Giuliani (+2)
3. Al Gore (+5)
4. Fred Thompson (+3)
5. Barack Obama (-3)
6. Mitt Romney (+3)
7. John McCain (-4)
8. John Edwards (-2)
9. Michael Bloomberg (-4)
10. Bill Richardson (no change)

CrowdRules, a user-generated voting site at www.crowdrules.com, provides collective intelligence software-as-a-service for media research, contests, polling and other activities that require unbiased voting.

CrowdRules at Twiistup gets a mention on CNET

Hey CrowdRulians,

We had an awesome time at Twiistup 2 at the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice, CA on Wednesday, August 8th. It was good to see a number of our friends there. It was a sold-out, loud, rocking (Bono look-alike included) time, with some heavy hitters from both the technology and media communities. CrowdRules, Fafarazzi, CampusBug, JibJab, ElephantDrive, and Faqqly were the featured show-offs.

First of all, a special shout-out to Bill Wetherell and Mike Macadaan of AOL for putting together Twiistup 2. Their goal is to create NoCal meets SoCal events in order to bridge the gap - both perceived and real - between the tech and content communities. Bravo to them for pulling it off so well. We look forward to many more Twiistup events! Thanks also to Microsoft for sponsoring this event, and to David Chou, Microsoft's Architect Evangelist.

Special thanks to Oskar Flach of Small Minds for putting all the video excitement together.

Next, thanks to Michelle Thatcher for her writeup of Twiistup and of CrowdRules. It was a pleasure meeting you, Michelle! And thanks to Bub.blicio.us for interviewing us!

Also really enjoyed meeting Vak Sambath and Melvin Smith of CampusBug, Chris Gammill of Teleflip, Ken Feldman of Stylit, Olivier of OTX, Heather of The Purple Tornado / HeatherVescent, Michael Hartl, author of Railspace, Sam Leventer of Napster, Victor Caballero of Center Staging, David Atkins of Pollux Research,  Don Lee of BuchalterNemer, Michael Schneider of Fluidesign, Andy Rosen of Getreel, Glenn McClanan of Edmunds, and Adoree Durayappah of Ecards.pro. And that was just a few of the 250+ people who attended this way-cool event. If you missed it, sign up early for Twiistup 3, as Twiistup 2 was a sell-out!

So many people, so little time. On to the next event! See you soon!

Dave @ CrowdRules

Why AssignmentZero should have used CrowdRules

Crowdsourcing. Pro-am journalism. Collaborative journalism. Great examples of Collective Intelligence. But Collective Intelligence requires tools for proper execution. Few tools exist. AssignmentZero, the recent collaborative pro-am journalism experiment by newassignment.net and Wired magazine, was deemed a failure by both organizations. Why?

Collective Intelligence is simple in concept, difficult in execution. Collective Intelligence tools are a paradox: they must allow free expression of solutions to a problem while providing the means for the group to make unbiased decisions on the best of those solutions. That's where the problems start: everyone wants their opinion to be "the best". Without removing information cascades - things that bias voting  - the group can't make a decision. They might as well just let a small group of people make the final decisions. So that's what's been happening in most experiments with Collective Intelligence.

Historically, small groups of people have always made the final decisions. They're called Executive Committees. Boards of Directors. Editorial Boards. Record label A & R directors. And so on. Yet in the era of user generated content, small groups of people quickly become overwhelmed with the multitude of choices. That's what's happening now. And that's why Collective Intelligence tools are so important; without them, effective and reliable decisions involving more than a few choices can't be made. Instead, the people with the loudest or most influential voices once again make the decisions. Like bloggers. Does might make right? Does loud make right? While that's what often passes for Democracy in the United States, would you trust the outcome?

Building simple, easy-to-use tools to facilitate Collective Intelligence is the next mandate for the web. Perhaps it's what Web 3.0 will be all about: turning collections of people into collective decision-making groups of people. Yet without effective tools, it will just be yesterday's news - and newsrooms - in a new wrapper. And that's the simple reason why AssignmentZero failed: they used old tools to try to do something new.

AssignmentZero was - and is - an inspiring look at the future of journalism. I look forward to the next iteration, and hope that they will seek solutions that will truly empower their participants.

Disclaimer: CrowdRules was offered as a solution to help power AssignmentZero.

Dave @ CrowdRules

Clinton beats Obama in latest CrowdRules poll

August 2, 2007 - Los Angeles

In the latest CrowdRules 2008 presidential poll, Hillary Clinton edged out Barack Obama. CrowdRules members were asked to choose from a field of 10 candidates the one they felt was most likely to win the 2008 presidential race.

CrowdRules, a user-generated voting site known for its unbiased outcomes, regularly runs political polls.

The complete ranking is as follows:

1. Hillary Clinton
2. Barack Obama
3. John McCain
4. Rudy Giuliani
5. Michael Bloomberg
6. John Edwards
7. Fred Thompson
8. Al Gore
9. Mitt Romney
10. Bill Richardson

Contact CrowdRules