Jeff Howe, in his blog at wired.com "The Rise of Crowdsourcing" described the incredibly cheap pool of labor now available for research and development. He states, "For the last decade or so, companies have been looking overseas, to India or China, for cheap labor. But now it doesn't matter where the laborers are...as long as they are connected to the network." Granovetter described "the strength of weak ties", which according to Howe are the most efficient networks since they "link to the broadest range of information, knowledge, and experience."
Here is a prime example:
Two undergraduates at Rice University developed a $30 tool to detect anemia in blood samples that does not use electricity. http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/salad-spinner-centrifuge-a-cheap-ingenious-health-care-tool-2019637/
The most noteworthy aspect of this tool is that development was basically free! Imagine how much a medical equipment developer would have paid its scientists to research and develop a tool for detecting anemia that does not use electricity. Some other examples of crowdsourcing that take advantage of extremely low or non-existent development costs are Wikipedia, iStockphoto, Youtube, and InnoCentive. Even a child can get in on the action!
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