There is one issue that everyone generally agrees on in Germany, its economic model, the “social market economy” is the key to Germany’s economic success. This model, based on competitive economy, with the aim of linking free initiative to secured social progress through economic performance, is still the basis of the German economic and social order. An important prerequisite to maintain the function of free enterprise is an ethical awareness and responsibility for companies participating in market activities, as well as accepting social responsibility for society and the environment. This is also referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR). more… (in German)

Crowdsourcing in the field of CSR projects
Doesn’t it seem natural to include society in the realization of CSR projects – to do something for society with the help of society? Today, on account of modern Internet technologies, it has become easily possible to reach the full spectrum of our society. The Internet offers an enormous volume of data and communication possibilities. A large transparency, networked structures, peer production, collaborations and interest-focused network communities are the outcome. With a summons for direct or indirect support and participation in a CSR project, a whole crowd of Internet users can be quickly found for the project. more

Large companies lead the way. A number of large companies including Pepsi, Fiat, Lego, McDonald’s and Starbucks discovered crowdsourcing as a means of obtaining product ideas, opinions and user behavior directly from the consumer long ago.

These companies use their prominence and their own consumer fan community in social networks and/or on their own web pages and blogs. However, small and medium-sized companies with a lesser degree of popularity and smaller fan communities on Facebook and Co. can also make use of the crowdsourcing concept. Crowds belonging to one or more crowdsourcing platforms take the place of the fan communities of the large corporations. more

It is common knowledge that the changes in the field of IT and “New Media” are progressing at a very quick pace and involve continuously new possibilities and trends. In relation to its importance for marketing management one can say that hardly any topic turns out more new knowledge than online marketing.

Companies must constantly observe the trends and changes in the areas of search engine optimization, search engine advertisement, additional online advertisement options, social media, mobile devices and communication channels, as well as web based interactive options in order to provide marketing activities that are target-oriented and up to date. more

The power of numbers: how corporations handle gigantic projects with the assistance of a multitude of Internet helpers.
The task sounded nearly impossible. The problem facing Markt.de was: how can a complete glossary be written within just a matter of months? The Internet site needed over two thousand advice texts at short notice to make their offer more attractive to surfers. The scope of topics ranged from «How do I raise a colt?» to «Second-hand BMW 3 series». more… (in German)

Growth plans: whether a well established medium-sized company or an ambitious newcomer – suitable corporate financing is available for both. However, it depends on the individual circumstances.
While the NBE Group is a company that belongs to a more traditional sector, clickworker.com conducts an entirely new business model. It is based on crowdsourcing, a term made up of “outsourcing” and “crowd”, i.e. the outsourcing of tasks to the crowd. more… (in German)

Change is in the air. For an industry that’s already evolved significantly from the “Kelly Girl” days, the future promises more change to come. So what’s in store?
For starters, we’ll see more projects being crowdsourced, more hiring in the cloud, more use of technology, more independent workers and the increased use of vendor management systems. In short, more of everything.
Crowdsourcing ranks as an emerging practice. Crowdsourcing has been used for recruiting, but it’s also a relatively new area and it remains to be seen as to whether crowdsourcing could itself be a new branch of the staffing industry. more

IT at KIT: Researchers have developed quality management systems for online platforms that coordinate the rate of work and creativity of freelancers via Internet. “Cloud Computing” enables companies to fall back on scalable computing power and storage capacity. In contrast though, a “People Cloud” makes a scalable number of workers available via Internet. They are used when non-automated tasks such as allocating images, researching information or writing texts are requested. The central challenge is the constant quality of the work results. This is now ensured by a quality management developed by KIT. more… (in German)

With the help of highly productive web tools, hoteliers are able to create an online survey in the wink of an eye. Certainly, the careful selection of questions as well as prudent participant recruiting is necessary. more… (in German)

Technology has changed the working world. Many people now receive orders and assignments via the Internet and do their work from home. The platform Clickworker uses an international pool of “clickworkers” to complete large advertising and media projects at home. Could this be the way we work in the future?
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