A Wiki for Everyone

Ease of use, free, what's to stop everyone from taking advantage of wikis?

Inga Schrobsdorff interviews Ben Elowtiz, CEO of WetPaint, May 8, 2007

WetPaint launched a year ago with a simple site that allows anyone to create a Wiki. WetPaint’s advantage is ease of use. Type in a subject, and a drop-down list shows all sites with similar topics already created on WetPaint. Users can either jump on an existing site and start contributing or, if they feel their idea is unique, go ahead and create their own. With a few clicks of buttons with demystifying headers like “Create Your Own Wiki Now,” users create their own site in a few minutes. Many are finding the idea appealing; the company now hosts 400,000 sites created by users. And some powerful companies are tapping in, with the "Powered by WetPaint" logo on sites including T-Mobile, CBS, American Express Publishing, Meredith Publishing, HTC and ABC.

Assignment Zero recently spoke with CEO Ben Elowitz about WetPaint and the future of crowdsourcing as he sees it.

Q: What do you think is really new about crowdsourcing?

Ben Elowitz: Crowdsourcing certainly isn’t new … it’s been practiced in different formats for centuries. However, online crowdsourcing is relatively new and it’s being fostered by two things - demographic shifts and technological changes. Demographically, until now you didn’t have a critical mass of diverse knowledge bases online. While the techno-savvy person has been online forever, the likelihood of that person knowing a great deal about an obscure topic was infinitesimal. This made crowdsourcing online inefficient and the resulting work ineffectual. Now the likelihood of a topic expert being online is much greater. Therefore, you can crowdsource on projects from A to Z because you can find people (or more likely they find you - thanks, Google!) willing and able to contribute constructively. Regarding technology, that has evolved most in the realm of empowering anyone with the ability to contribute. Not long ago, the “cost” associated with contributing online significantly outweighed the benefit. As technology has evolved and become more user friendly, the “cost” of participating is rapidly heading to zero. Assuming the value generated through participating outweighs the costs, why wouldn’t someone who knows something participate and leave the project better off because of their contribution?

Q: Is there money to be made with crowdsourcing? If so, why will some people work for free so that others can profit?

A: No question - there is money to be made with crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a basic human attribute - by nature we like to work together to produce things of value. This type of behavior has happened offline for millenniums and now it’s taking shape online. The business opportunity comes when entrepreneurs make the human process of collaboration quicker, easier and more rewarding than before.

In terms of why people work for free so others can profit, we have to remember that the value equation on crowdsourcing is not only measured in dollars and cents. As long as the participant feels like they are getting compensation commensurate with their input, the incentive to continue participating is rather high.

Q: Do you really think there's wisdom in crowds? If so, what's the clearest example you know of? What projects in particular are you impressed by?

A: I’m a big fan of "The Wisdom of Crowds." I think some of the best examples of the Wisdom of Crowds in action were provided by James Surowiecki in his book. Having been a city dweller for much of my life, I was particularly fascinated by his example of how walking down a busy sidewalk was a picture perfect example of how we navigate together to help each other get where we’re going as quickly as possible. Other examples I find fascinating - I think you need look only to the capital markets to find the best example of where collective knowledge quickly and constantly comes together to create markets for stocks and bonds. From a WetPaint perspective, my favorite crowdsourcing project is the CSI wiki where fans of the show have built the definitive guide to the series. The amount of creativity and detail that has been quickly assembled could not have happened were it not for the collective efforts of the show’s fan base.

Q: What has surprised you the most with crowdsourcing?

A: The biggest surprise for me to date with regard to WetPaint and crowdsourcing has been the absolute variety of projects. When we started WetPaint, we hoped that we’d see a representative market of ideas on WetPaint. We assumed our first users would be very technically oriented and of a certain age and education set. However, some of our fastest growing areas are outside the realm of technology and populated by people who don’t fit the traditional mold of online contributors. For use, this was a huge validation of the crowdsourcing concept and the ability of WetPaint to enable such broad participation.

Q: Tell me more about your site, WetPaint.

A: Amex Publishing can only fit so many pages in their print edition. But with their WetPaint site, they can go far beyond that. The same with magazines like Food and Wine, which don’t have the scope to cover the whole country. But with a national companion site to the printed edition, they are able to explore what comes from their readers.

Q: So WetPaint sites are usually sponsored by companies?

A: Some of them have corporate sponsorship, companies that want to engage with their constituents and let them speak their minds. They give up control by allowing open commentary. Some want more control. For example, the judicious control of their trademarks. Others are more flexible and see these sites as an opportunity for the community to engage.

It’s the distinction between stewardship and control. In one case, Starwood (the American Express Starwood Card), there was someone who secretly patrolled the site and fixed whatever went wrong. After a while, the customers themselves were defending the company against complaints lodged on the site because they felt they had been taken care of. This site monitor now works for Starwood; he was a hit with the community. Some organizations recognize the value of this.

Q: And what about the sites which are not sponsored by the companies?

A: Most companies realize that it is their passionate users who give these brands their power. For example, the Apple site is independent of the company, but as everyone knows, Apple users are incredibly passionate and devoted. So Apple has to stand by them. The Tivo community is similar; the company is very supportive and involved. T-Mobile users have a site for the Sidekick with features like “Pimp my Sidekick.”

Companies are able to tap into this and synthesize all the information from the community. People share tips, give advice on how to do things - it reduces the company’s support costs.

The WetPaint platform makes it so easy for users, they can do anything they want.

It’s a dialogue that the company is involved in with the users. WetPaint powers the site - it’s the company and the users that create it. Like YouTube, we provide the platform, but everything after that is the users.

Q: What’s the business model for WetPaint - how do you make money?

A: WetPaint is supported by advertising. Either WetPaint runs ads or the corporation with the site does, but it’s always paid for by advertisers.

Hosting is free with WetPaint. But you can see that almost all of the sites have targeted ads on the side run by Google. People teach each other how to request an ad.

But the number one reason people create these sites isn’t to make money. It’s passion; they love it when their passion develops into something larger than they ever expected - meeting people with like minds and sharing information. People want to know they’re making an impact.

My personal favorite site is our own WetPaint Central. We let users have a say. And we circulate it every week internally; it helps us with product development - what do people want? There’s a feedback section. It’s very important.

People are even promoting their WetPaint sites on a WetPaint site.

Q: Tell me a little more about how the companies control these sites.

A: Moderators can control who contributes to the site - one of the most important principles of crowdsourcing. It’s up to the moderator; they might want the site wide open or they might want to have people sign in and create user accounts.

If you look at a site like CSI wiki, their fans created a hairstyle gallery of photos monitoring the changing hairdos of Catherine Willow.

There has to be a willingness to take a risk and let consumers talk about you. The smart companies learn from their users. They can come up with ideas the company never would have. Another one, Lost, has a feature, “Ask the Producers”; it’s been gaining audience and page views.

Q: How do fans find these sites? And what do they call these sites - “Wikis”?

A: Some, like CBS and ABC, have links form their main site to these sites. There’s one for the show Jericho that’s called the Jericho Wiki. Sometimes they actually call it a “WetPaint.”

Q: And what are the people who set up the sites called?

A: Moderators are the ones who set up the sites. When you create your own site, you start out as the first moderator.

Q: And how about controls for inappropriate postings?

A: All WetPaint sites have a flag that highlights “questionable language.” The questionable language is a pretty standard list - to be honest I’m not sure where it came from, it’s a long list, starting with the 7 words you can’t say on television. We’re constantly adding to the list.

Moderators can also ban accounts.

Q: So from your experience with WetPaint, what do you see in the future for crowdsourcing?

A: There’s so much interest in creating these sites. We’re constantly making improvements, we add new features every month. If you want to think about it this way, Wikipedia is one bookcase in a library. There are 999,000 more. And user contributions don’t have to be confined to one area of knowledge.

Companies wanted to get involved with their constituents; they are now sitting on the same side of the table as their customers. It’s gone from a soapbox to a conversation. It’s interesting, companies are also using these wikis internally to connect and collaborate, in firewall-protected space.

But they realize that they need to connect to customers; collaboration is so powerful.

This feeds into a larger theme of the past few years. Time magazine’s Person of the Year was “You.” The superstars on YouTube were individual creators, but we are moving towards a “we” from a “me,” towards real collaboration.

Q: Is there anything else out there like WetPaint?

A: WetPaint is by far the leader in this type of site, and that’s because of ease of use. When you let people collaborate in these creative areas, it gets added to constantly and it really takes off because it’s so easy to use.

(Edited by Amanda Michel)