Is this the future of outsourcing?

Interesting article about the results of Netflix's prize competition - $1m for the team who can best to improve the video rental and streaming service’s recommendations engine by 10% or more. 40,000 teams entered from 186 countriers.

It occurred to me that maybe this is a model which other companies should adopt. Why spend millions employing a big consultancy company like EDS, PWC, Cap Gemini etc on an ongoing basis - with results which can only be uncertain at the beginning of the engagement and often disappoint the client - why not post a specific technical (and why not design too?) problem and let the wisdom ofc crowds sort it out?

The Hierarchy of Digital Distraction...

From Any Kind of Actual Work all the way through to Device Failure...

from Information is Beautiful

“Only second-rate minds are afraid of the obvious.” David Cecil

“The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.” Philosopher Henri-Frederic Amiel [As good a description of 'analysis paralysis' as I think you'll find anywhere]

GREAT DESIGNERS STEAL by Jeff Veen - Ep 28

from Wired UK, Sep 09 edition

Frugality matters...

"Deliberate thinking is a wonderful tool when we have the luxury of time, the help of a computer, and a clearly defined task, and the fruits of that type of analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition ... in good decision making, frugality matters ... even the most complicated of relationships and problems ... have an underlying identifiable pattern ... in picking up these sorts of patterns, less is more. Overloading the decision makers with information ... makes picking up that signature harder, not easier. To be a successful decision maker, we have to edit ... Snap judgements can be made in a snap because they are frugal, and if we want to protect our snap judgements, we have to take steps to protect that frugality."
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, pp141-142 in my edition