02/22/2007 11:59:00 PM 
"Elsewhere, there was a bigger surprise when Dell launched the IdeaStorm site.
Customers are offered the chance to make recommendations for the troubled company and its products.
Popular ideas right now include the incompatible options of stripping out all the extra software on Dell computers and of pre-installing Linux.
But the site's doing well as a concept, because user democracy is a popular thing in the wired world.
After all, if good ideas get moved to the top of the pile, then they get acted on. Right?
Ah, there's the rub. Can you imagine Dell, which makes a significant amount of money out of subsidies from software packages (the same money that it uses to keep its products low-cost) ditching Microsoft, Google and the rest? I can't.
In fact, I envisage Michael Dell - who recently took back day-to-day control of the company - rolling into the boardroom and summarily executing anyone who came up with such advice with an appropriately Texan flourish.
The "crowd sourcing" hype machine takes another blow every time a good idea gets ignored. Sure, in old-school cyberspace nobody could hear you scream, but in this Web 2.0 wonderland you can say what you like ... and still nobody cares."
There are some clear implications here for companies planning to open their process up to consumers.
1. Lay down the ground rules
2. Explain how ideas will be considered
3. When selected, explain why
4. When not considered, explain why
5. Communicate regularly
6. Bring in some consumers to the next level- select some idea generators to work more on the idea and reward them for their efforts
Without a clear relationship/"contract", consumer fatigue will quickly set in and many of these efforts will end up backfiring on the brands that set them up.
Basically, you really need to think this stuff through.
Via Freedom to Differ
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