On Advice givin by the anonymous (required 2)

In the case for sidetaker, it is nice how both opinions of the event are posted and then people can comment on both sides, and give their takes on how both sides should act. While I found some of the advice for some of the situations to be completely useless, some of the advice was really good. I feel as though looking through all the advice and then grasping the concept of what should be done, is better advice than any one advice columnist could give.
Not to entirely discredit the validity of the advice columnist- I feel the advice columnist could be somewhat equivalent to a third-partied friend discussing with you what you should do about a problem you are having with someone else. Their advice will usually be good and relatively unbiased. So, if you want a simple and relatively unbiased opinion for help then the advice columnist is suitable. However, if you are looking for all sides of the story, and not only trying to understand what you should do in a situation, but also how the other person may be interpreting the situation, then consulting a group of third-partied people like sidetaker is better for you.
I can not say which I would prefer. Given the situation, one person may just not be enough advice, or the advice that person gave may not be the most desireable. All in all, the crowds ideas after all perspectives have been considered and summed up, tends to result in the most desireable decision for both parties involved in the original issue.

On threadless and sharing ideas (required 1)

I have never personally used a site that shares individuals ideas for retail purposes. Although this is the case, I am in no way saying that it is a bad idea. I looked around threadless.com and believe that the concept the site uses of individuals posting their shirt concepts and getting the credit for the shirt is a great idea; it allows people to get their ideas out there and express themselves.
Also, the concept that the viewers and potential buyers get to rate potential shirts that threadless will produce is a great idea. This idea makes sites like threadless essentially "by the people for the people", in that if the potential buyers find something desireable, the likelyhood of it being available for purchase is greatly increased.
Not only is crowdsourcing a great way to involve potential customers in the selection process, it also is a great money making scheme. The crowd decides what items are best, and therefore is most pleased with the selection and is most likely to purchase from that site.
I think if big market companies used crowdsourcing as a way to gauge how well items are selling in their store, the store would have a much higher margin of profit because they would be able to adjust to what the customers think instead of just arbitrarily deciding when to sell certain items.

Freewrite blog #1

The title of the book we are currently reading is "The Wisdom of Crowds". It is a pretty decent book, and so far I have come to realize it pretty much emphasizes that working together in groups, however loosely defined, is better than working by oneself. A great example I have found of a tight-knit group working together is the UMBC men's club rugby team. I have been on the team for three years, and this fall by far has shown the most promise. Last spring, the team never really acted as a cohesive unit, one player always going for the score instead of passing the ball off to someone in a better position- needless to say we did not win many games in the spring. This fall is a different story. There is already a feeling of togetherness, and unselfish play has become a regular part of practice. Last weekend, we traveled to Penn St. to play their 2nd squad- we played this same squad at the end of last spring and were routed. Last weekend's result was slightly different, yes we still lost, but the final score was a one score game. I can honestly say that our team, seeing as it is mostly inexperienced freshman, is not as talented as the team was at the end of last spring. The only reason I can attribute to such a turn around in how we played is the fact that we worked as a unit. There was no flare from any individual player, everyone came out to play hard and work together.