Kylee's Midterm Post #1

Here is a summary of my progress throughout the semester so far:

Call Me Kylee - This was an introductory post about me.
Humanizing the Digital Age - In this post, I discussed the idea that we are immersed in our digital culture.
Comic Con: A Digital Culture Convention - After attending Comic Con, I wrote a post about how digital fandom has affected our very means of socializing.
Navigating the Digital Waters - In this post, I expounded on why we should and how we can go about asserting ourselves into the digital realm.
Do It Yourself: Etsy - A post about the DIY movement.
Understanding Cyberbullying - This is a post centered around a video that I saw posted on a friend's Facebook wall. The post had to do with bullying through digital means, which in this video's case was email.
Vocal Hashtags and Text Speech - A post about our evolving language due to digital culture.
Extensions of the Self - This is a discussion of a topic our group discussed during a Moby Dick lecture. It focuses on Pip and Ahab's relationship and how Pip functions as an extension of Ahab.
Spiraling Into Success - I thought of this post after reading Dr. Burton's post about the spiral and after reading Kayla Swan's post about her experience as an English major. Here, I weigh in on this idea and note some things I might want to change in my own research.
General Conference Weekend - Digital Culture Style - A post about experiencing general conference and engaging in the digital universe while doing so.

Throughout the course of the semester, I have become particularly interested in the idea of crowdsourcing. I think that it has become a valuable tool in accomplishing a wide variety of purposes because of the wide variety of people that are at our disposal, and I believe it has the potential to become even more valuable than we know. I say "our" meaning that anyone can start an initiative and get it out for people to see, comment on, and work on. In her post, Mele brings up a number of different websites that employed crowdsourcing to create opportunities for many people that they would not have had before. One I specifically remember was patientslikeme.com, a website that allows people with the same medical conditions to come in contact. Amber said in her post that she found a video from a group of people who tried to raise money and awareness through crowdsourcing for a Moby Dick card game. Probably my favorite day of class was when Dr. Burton introduced me to Eric Whitacre's virtual choir. Since seeing that video, I have actually submitted a video for the World of Color Honor Choir, another virtual choir that Eric Whitacre is putting together. I love the idea of exploring new ways for creativity. All of these examples lead me to believe that crowdsourcing enables the average person to employ others' creativity for a certain cause. Depending on the cause, this ability has the potential to be the basis for some very significant world changes. Dr. Burton said in his post, "Creativity is not just a kind of romantic feel-good thing; it is a necessary activity of mind and soul that brings order to the chaos of too much information." My question, then, is this: how do we harness the power of crowdsourcing in an attempt to bring order to the chaos of many of the bigger issues in the world today, and what will be the benefits of crowdsourcing as opposed to outsourcing these tasks?