Crowdsourcing third places

Up until recently, crowdsourced placemaking only made it to the front page of this website. Sunday, July 27, 2008, was a seminal moment as it hit the front page of the fifth largest newspaper in the U.S., the Washington Post in the article Online, a Community Gathers to Concoct A Neighborhood Eatery. The story, written by food writer Jane Black, is focused on the crowdsourcing of a green, healthy, education and community-oriented restaurant in Washington DC called Elements, which has been profiled here a few times.

I actually think this is one of the best crowdsourcing articles for a number of reasons:
- It quotes Jeff Howe, the person who popularized the term crowdsourcing and has a book coming out very soon.
- It quotes a New York-based restaurant consultant. You can’t get much more qualified than that.
- It quotes two of the crowdsourcers; the future restaurant customers. When was the last time you got to read about what they think?
- It quotes, ahem, yours truly, and the owner, Linda Welch, which leads to my favorite part of the article:

“When Welch told him about her plans, Takemoto suggested crowdsourcing the restaurant. “I said, ‘Great!‘ “ Welch remembers. “ ‘What the hell is that?‘ “