Steven Levitt (aka the Freakonomics guy) on the first-world phenomenon of crowdsourcing.

Background

Interviewing the Experts of Crowdsourcing

Since we started Assignment Zero far more people have signed up to do interviews than to write features or help with research. This clued us into the potential of interviews - whether by aim, phone, or in person - for our project. Our goal is to submit to Wired for publication a set of interviews examining key questions and concepts.

Finished Interviews. We still have to format what's coming in. And we will edit them lightly. Your original reporting will remain untouched in the "Team Reporting" tab. But this is the package we will send to Wired in terms of Q and A's.

Let us know how things are going. If you have any questions or hit any snags along the way -- the Assignment Zero editors are here for you. We got your back 100 percent. Nervous about your first interview? We are here to pump you up. Having trouble getting in touch with an interview subject -- we will kick down doors for you. Just let us know. We work for you!

We have almost 80 interviews lined up which is great. But we don't want to let any of them slip away. So stay on it -- and let us know how things are going.

If you want to submit questions to the rest of the team -- check out our discussion threads (the tab above that says discuss).

To participate, you need to guarantee that you'll be in a position to donate at least five hours during the week of May 8 -14. Why five hours? You'll need to select an interviewee with the help of Angela and then prepare for the interview by discussing with other contributors what questions should be asked of all our interviewees and which, in particular, should be asked of yours. The interview itself shouldn't last more than an hour, but then you'll need to type it up and, if you've got the interest, write an intro.

After you've submitted your interview, an editor will take a look at it and help polish it up (with your help) for Wired.com.

If you're not sure or don't care who you interview, just 'join the team' on the left and an editor will get in touch with you. If you see the name of a person you'd like to interview on the list to the right, visit their page by clicking through the assignment and then submit your request through our 'apply' feature (second tab from the left just below the assignment description).

The majority of assignments have a "background section" (first tab on the left when you click into them) where you can learn more about why they are important to our story on crowdsourcing.

If you want to suggest someone we should interview leave a comment here, or click on the discussion tab above.

In the meantime, feel free to send your questions to Angela Pacienza at angela.newassignment@gmail.com

Filed Reporting

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