I'm now one week into my quest to find a new logo for my company using www.crowdspring.com, a well-known crowdsourcing website.

For the uninitiated, crowdsourcing is a way for anyone to tap into a large pool of skilled workers and international talent at a reasonable cost. You can crowdsource anything these days from graphic design, research and development, computer programming to photography.

Detractors of crowdsourcing mock it as a poor substitute for hiring "true professionals" such as those…

Jeff Howe is a writer at Wired magazine and a Neimann Fellow at Harvard who coined the term "crowdsourcing" in 2006. In this video he explains the basic concept behind crowdsourcing and its impact on the way companies do business.

What is Crowdsourcing?

Wikipedia, which is itself a crowdsourced online encyclopaedia, says "crowdsourcing" as a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing". It is defined as,

"the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or a contractor, and…

There is a cost to participating in social media. Although social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are "free", before jumping on the social media bandwagon, a company must understand the supporting costs involved in 1) launching a presence and 2) maintaining a following on these sites.

Costs include the dedication of staff to this social media effort. Employees must be trained in the effective use of social media for promotion and, more importantly, human "conversational" contact…

In 2010, the B2B social media discussion has advanced far beyond "Should our company play?" to "How do we get started?" More savvy B2B companies are well out of the starting gate.

Research shows that social media is increasingly viewed as not just a passing fad or a "new shiny toy", but a viable and indeed valuable element of a company's marketing strategy. Social media has become mainstream over the past couple of years.

If you're still on the fence about whether the "big three" social media…

The "000's" are officially over. And frankly, some of us are probably relieved to turn the page on 2009 with its grim economic recession and job upheavals.

But  on the threshold of 2010, I don't need the prospect of a new decade to get me going. Any regular "new year" has loads of potential for change, personal development, professional growth and new adventures. In this new year, the possibilities are endless for any of us to…

Chris Brogan is perhaps one of the most celebrated and prolific thought leaders in the area of social media, online community building and digital marketing.

Brogan is President of New Media Labs, a new media marketing agency just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. He is a "power blogger" ranked in the top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150, a much sought-after conference speaker, and co-author recognized on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal  bestselling lists for his book "Trust Agents:…

On September 23rd this year, Google released a browser sidebar called "Sidewiki" which has already created quite a stir.   Sidewiki is a Google Toolbar addon which allows visitors to contribute and read information alongside any web page, enabling point-specific comments, expert opinions, and related links to be aggregated.

Sidewiki is available on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. If you don't wish to download the Google Toolbar, you can still access Sidewiki on any browser via a boo…

Ever since I heard that Mirvish Productions was bringing Chaim Topol to Toronto in December for a stage production reprising his much-loved role as Tevye the Russian milkman in the movie Fiddler on the Roof, I HAD to have tickets!

I must have been one of the first people to scoop up those tickets - 6 of them for my extended family. O.K., $625 for great seats at this show was maybe a tad extravagant, but the play was billed as Chaim Topol's "farewell tour" - and I rationalized that it would make…