In December 2009, under a program for the US Department of Defense (DOD), 10 balloons were launched in plain sight across the continental United States. After disappearing into the clouds, the whereabouts of those 10 balloons was known only to the DOD.
Why? Well, it was actually a test of the nation’s ability to mobilize in a crisis (a bomb, for example). On a pre-designated day, the DOD was to launch 10 large red weather balloons each 8 feet in diameter. The first person or team to accurately locate all 10 balloons would be awarded a $40,000 prize.
The tracking task was said to be virtually impossible using traditional intelligence-gathering techniques. In total there were 53 entrants, many of whom felt the teams with access to satellite data would enjoy an unfair advantage. But even with that advantage, it was a daunting task to spot the 8-foot balloons scattered randomly across the US. (It’s important to note that satellite programming capable of surveilling objects as small as 8 feet around didn’t exist until late 2011.)
Amazingly, the winning team represented the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—locating all 10 balloons in less than nine hours.
Amazing? How so? “MIT?” you say. “A bunch of computer geeks. Surely they had some computer intrigue or satellite chicanery up their sleeve.”
Actually, technology had little to do with it. The winning strategy relied heavily on “crowdsourcing”—a process of using a large number of people to obtain anything from information to services. Everyday examples of crowdsourcing include the community efforts that go into Wikipedia, Kiva, or Yelp, whose prosperous business models hinge on massive numbers of people donating information, time, and/or their opinions.
The MIT team’s implementation of crowdsourcing was simple…yet ingenious.
The team created a payment method to incentivize participants to join in their network to help them win. MIT funded the team’s efforts with $40,000 to be paid out to spotters throughout the country—$4,000 allocated to each balloon found, divided among all the people involved in finding it. For example, if you were the only one that spotted a balloon and contacted MIT, you would have received the full $4,000. However, if a friend of yours found it, told you, and you told MIT, the $4,000 of prize money would be divided between you and your friend…and if a friend of a friend found it, the $4,000 would be again proportioned out. You get the idea. MIT thus would pay out a maximum of $4,000 per balloon, divided among however many people were involved in correctly identifying its location.
The MIT team invested the most they could win because they didn’t care as much about the money as they did about the bragging rights of winning. Ultimately, MIT had 4,665 people involved with reporting the balloon sightings. Each of the 10 balloons ended up requiring anywhere from 400 to 500 people’s help over the course of the contest.
Now, there’s a lot of very valid criticism of crowdsourcing techniques. Many never really launch, while others don’t realize ongoing momentum. Still, the “crowd” can be amazingly effective at problem solving on even a simpler level: for example, engaging in the classic contest of determining “How many jelly beans are in the jar?” People fuss and grumble, turn the jar upside down and back, and the guesses range from ridiculously high to inconceivably low. Interestingly, though, studies have shown the group average, even in the case of bean counting, often is surprisingly accurate.
Puget Sound Starts Here
How else might we leverage this “group-think” methodology to come up with solutions to perplexing real-world conundrums? Well, masses of minds are doing just that in Washington state with the “Puget Sound Starts Here” campaign. The massive undertaking is an example of drawing on citizen and business synergies to protect the Puget Sound, the second-largest estuary in the US (only Chesapeake Bay is larger).
The crowdsourcing tool for Puget Sound Starts Here is basically the same one used by the MIT team—a “we’re all in this together” mentality. The sum of the parts is indeed greater than the whole, and we’re getting a jump-start on leveraging the masses. From its humble beginnings, the program welcomed any and all volunteers, entities, organizations, and businesses to take action under the banner of Puget Sound Starts Here.
Of course, EPA has wide latitude to implement pollution control programs that minimize contaminants entering surface waters from specific points, such as a factory located along a waterway. These large point sources are easy to identify and scrutinize through the permitting process of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), making industrial and municipal contributions to waterway pollution relatively easy to trace.
But the millions of individuals living near the Puget Sound—virtually anonymous faces in the crowd—aren’t required to apply for permits to pollute . . . yet we collectively are responsible for spilling tremendous amounts of contaminants into the waterways. These collective individuals, often unknowingly, comprise a huge nonpoint source of contamination. The crowd is oblivious. Some 4.5 million people, taken individually, may seem insignificant as nonpoint sources, but together they add up to a significant share of the waterway contaminations. Mere individuals just going about their daily lives blithely contribute to this global crisis—one oil drip, one dog’s poop, one driveway car wash or over-fertilized yard at a time.
But not so much anymore—the crowd in Washington is starting to get the message that their small actions are beginning to put a dent in these harmful behaviors in the Puget Sound region.
About the Puget Sound
The Puget Sound stretches inland from the Pacific Ocean to make connections with 19 separate river basins, incorporating more than 10,000 tributary streams. Many of these tributaries originate less than 100 miles from the banks of the Puget Sound in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains, flowing from pristine glaciers and mountain springs through wild areas, timberlands, farms, suburbs, and major population centers before reaching the Puget Sound.
The Puget Sound is home to a diverse array of species that depend on it, including giant Pacific octopuses, countless fish, porpoises, starfish, seabirds, shellfish, and, of course, salmon, to name a few. Other inhabitants of the region include more than 4.5 million people.
Unlike Chesapeake Bay, however, the Puget Sound includes vast amounts of deep open waters, shallow bays and inlets, and rocky sediments that lie underneath. Remove the waters and you’d see a rugged underwater mountain range with valley and ridge landscapes, with an elevation change rivaling those of the Rockies and Andes. These myriad underwater formations are instrumental in channeling the waters throughout the Sound. But they are, at the same time, gigantic grease and oil traps that keep billions and trillions of drops of oil and other contaminants circulating in the estuary.
Protecting the Waters
In 2007, former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire formed the Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency to coordinate a collaborative effort to restore and preserve the Puget Sound. The Clean Water Act added urgency to the state’s effort by requiring municipalities with stormwater systems throughout the region to reduce pollution in stormwater from residential areas and businesses.
Protecting the Sound’s water quality was a tantalizing challenge: A decade ago, the Puget Sound buoyed high on EPA’s list of waterways in dire need of upstream management. But, like the MIT team, municipalities in the region rose to the task. After all, who more keenly recognized the many and varied ways that a pristine Puget Sound would benefit the state—from the basics of shipping lane economics to the vitality of tourism, fisheries, and marinas.
Key players in King and Snohomish counties with the cities of Seattle and Redmond started forging a team. In less than a year, they rallied holders of municipal stormwater permits in more than 80 Puget Sound jurisdictions to create the STORM (Stormwater Outreach for Regional Municipalities) network. The group reeled in a $1 million Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) grant and merged its efforts with the Puget Sound Partnership. Soon, a campaign was born: Puget Sound Starts Here.
It started slowly as an umbrella public relations campaign that municipalities could use in their on-the-ground behavior change programs. With a core doctrine dedicated to Puget Sound protection, the campaign focused on four essential areas of social behavior: car oil leaks, car washing practices, dog waste disposal, and reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides in residential landscapes. In three short years, an astounding one out of four residents of the Puget Sound region would readily recognize the efforts.
The “crowd” was assembled and focused by local jurisdictions and nonprofits, which is proving to be an outstanding “source” for tackling problems that festered for decades. The challenge truly is one of placing resources and tools in the hands of residents to promote long-term behavioral change.
Fixing Car Oil Leaks
One logical, consumer-oriented focus for change came down to the operational fitness of vehicles consumers take to the road. Of an estimated 3.5 million vehicles in the Puget Sound region, it is estimated that approximately 10% of them have leaks. The Washington State Department of Ecology estimates that 7 million quarts of oil end up in the Puget Sound watershed every year. That’s like an oil tanker truck dumping its entire load into the Puget Sound and its tributaries each day. We’d all scream “Foul!” if that happened, but somehow people don’t seem to worry much about a drop of oil here and a drop of transmission fluid there.
STORM, Ecology, and nonprofit organizations decided to tackle this problem, because it does all add up, even if people don’t recognize it. Here are some examples where this collaboration has yielded successful results:
A King County study demonstrated that two-thirds of drivers will fix a leak within three months of discovering it, so STORM, nonprofit stakeholders, and state partners decided to launch the creative “Don’t Drip and Drive” campaign to change the behavior of vehicle owners throughout the Puget Sound region when it comes to checking for vehicle leaks and repairing leaks when they happen. Surveys of vehicle owners also highlight the fact that many people lack the confidence and mechanical understanding to properly identify and diagnose a vehicle leak, so sponsor organizations with ethical standards were sought to provide free inspections and discounts on repairs.
These sponsors, including the Automotive Services Association (ASA) and Triple A (AAA), are riding the crowdsourcing wave, and by 2014 more than 100 auto repair shops were participating in the effort—most of which are EnviroStar, AAA, and/or ASA members. Grants help pay for radio spots, online ads, and volunteer efforts.
Through volunteer events, professional inspections, and training workshops, thousands of leaking cars have been discovered, and their willing car owners found incentive to make repairs in the $50-off coupons provided by participating mechanics.
The effort plans to further expand and revise the program to yield optimal results. Visit www.fixcarleaks.org to learn more.
Car Wash Practices
Car owners elsewhere might not know that commercial car washes help protect waterways, but residents in the Puget Sound region are increasingly aware of the “eco logic” of commercial car care. Washing your car at home pollutes waterways—it’s a simple as that. You’re sullying 100 gallons or more of pristine water, effectively to wash many types of chemicals and known carcinogens into the gutter and eventually into a waterway that connects to the Puget Sound.
Many commercial car wash organizations have joined the effort by offering discounted car washing tickets to promote this best management practice (BMP). The Puget Sound Starts Here team works with multiple car washing facilities across the region to offer severely discounted car washing tickets that nonprofits and charities can use to raise money instead of hosting harmful car washing events. This system works by allowing charities to buy tickets at $2 to $3, for example, and sell them for $5 to $6, which is still a good deal for the car owner. Everyone wins. Some car wash companies went so far as to dedicate self-serve bays for discounted rental. STORM participates in these efforts with public service announcements and by sending out press releases, adding charity events to its calendars, and even purchasing tickets for distribution at local events.
Picking Up Pet Waste
Long before 2007 regulations mandated it, Ecology was working with municipalities to reduce the amount of fecal coliform found in local streams from pet waste. Pet waste, like human waste, contains harmful pathogens that can make contact with the water unsafe for humans, pets, and the environment. Nutrients in the waste also lead to harmful algal blooms, which can reduce oxygen levels and create dead zones. STORM worked with Ecology to produce campaigns that tested different methods of providing necessary information to the public and incentives for changing behavior. This is where “Scoop the poop, bag it, and place it in the trash” pledge was born, and a clever use of song with the “Dog Doogity” video. The originality of the song and dance incorporated into the viral video is proving to be memorable and thus potentially behavior altering. (See the YouTube video.) Since the video was produced in 2010, it has received more than 200,000 hits on YouTube, and there have been several spinoff videos in other locations around the US.
With innovative and clever ideas like the “Dog Doogity” video and the Adopt a Pet Waste Station program, the Puget Sound Starts Here team has elevated picking up after your pet to a whole new level. The team provides a one-year supply of pet waste bags to anyone volunteering to maintain a pet waste station. These programs are targeted to municipalities, who can go forward on their own or recruit volunteers. Many larger municipalities make huge purchases of pet waste bags and clip-on bag holders for leashes, then parcel them out as educational tools at dog events. Teeming with sponsors, this program is gathering input and support as people text their friends, post photos to Facebook, and tweet about the importance of keeping pet waste out of the waterways.
Practicing Natural Yard Care
In the early 2000s, “natural yard care” practices sprouted in the region. Several cities and counties worked together using social marketing strategies to determine the best way to provide education to residents concerning yard care BMPs. Some used a series of workshops educating garden enthusiasts on alternatives to chemical pesticides and fertilizers, touting a simple yet universal message: “Go Natural! A beautiful yard that’s easy to care for is the dream of most homeowners.”
Some stakeholders shared the tab for a workshop consultant. Others hired their own speakers, and still others employed train-the-trainer techniques like Master Gardeners. County extension office experts regularly held programs. The website was launched, which today is full of facts, tidbits, resources, and information about events. Further broadening the demographic reach are eminently popular lawn care, edible gardening, and native plant workshops and gardening hotlines.
The Power of Crowdsourcing
But the success of the entire effort hinges, to this day, on one simple idea: pooling resources.
Teaming public entities with nonprofit organizations and businesses boosts the impact of their shared interests.
When Jeff Howe coined the term crowdsourcing, he recognized the elegance of tapping a collective, public intelligence for business- or government-related tasks by outsourcing creation and execution to a third party. This “sum of the parts” strategy empowers each unit of that anonymous, amorphous collective to leverage its unique strengths and talents to reach unique and far-flung consumer niches—all with a lot of free labor.
“Crowd intelligence” soars to new heights by leveraging the collective impact of each of its participants from all walks of life—citizens who become both producers and consumers simultaneously. This synergy produces eye-popping productivity, funding, and voluntarism—spawning a “message” from mustard-seed roots to a leviathan so majestic that traditional big-budget marketing just naturally falls into a secondary (yet critical) supporting role.
It’s social media versus the nightly news. It’s guerilla workshops versus libraries full of reference books.
Embracing all the stakeholders in the effort and fostering the creative juices of Puget Sound Starts Here participating organizations tapped into the strongest of tools to realize social behavioral changes—a tool strong enough to dwarf the power of money-rich public relations campaigns and regulatory agencies.
To this day, all of the jurisdictions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses participating in the Puget Sound Starts Here campaign have no written agreements and haven’t even assigned officers. They take turns compiling quarterly minutes documenting biweekly half-day meetings. Yet the team supporting Puget Sound Starts Here quickly encompassed thousands of people and hundreds of businesses, serving as the genesis for a culture of artwork, tactics, and strategies—putting the “stake” in “stakeholder.”
The cooperative tools of crowdsourcing provided an open architecture that proved especially effective in today’s social media climate. Mobile devices are an excellent example of how to use open architecture, giving volunteers impetus to use their embedded tools (GPS, cameras, videos, social networks, etc.) to recruit and message the uninformed and to strengthen the team. Crowdsourcing gained immediacy and individual buy-in through the use of Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and other social media platforms.
Instead of building from the one source, the open-source tactic spawned rapid, diverse, unencumbered, and flexible networking.
Interestingly, much of the success of Puget Sound Starts Here has been driven by a campaign platform that has not micromanaged its integration at different locations and among different demographics. STORM and Puget Sound Partnership managed large grants, which they were able to share by offering mini-grants of $5,000 to $30,000. Partners, municipalities, and nonprofits were enticed to choose which Puget Sound Starts Here themed outreach to pursue and to decide how they want to target the grant money. Some used bus boards or movie theater ads, swag, online ads, coasters in local bars, coasters in coffee shops, community events, and more.
The Seattle Mariners and its AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers, have even joined the Puget Sound Starts Here team by supporting Puget Sound Starts Here nights at the ballparks each year. There is signage for ferries, an “I Love (symbol of a heart) Puget Sound” Festival in Olympia, and another on Hood Canal with its own tagline (“Do Some Good for the Hood”). Each unique approach spurred enthusiasm that offered locals meaningful input and true ownership. Still, more than a year later, these crowdsourcing efforts continue to grow, and even in the absence of large amounts of public and private financing, the impact of grassroots support and the all-important volunteers teaming up to help protect the fragile Puget Sound waters is creating a roadmap to the future, guided by motivated partners and a dedicated steering committee.
Relevant forms, successful model programs, instructions, and educational materials are all posted online to facilitate business and individual use of existing, tested materials.
This crowdsourcing, synergistic modeling effort just seems to get even better every day of its existence. With Puget Sound as a backdrop, it infiltrates the region almost to the level of an artificial intelligence. Its ability to morph to changing needs is uncanny.
Seemingly no detail has been left out. Anybody can get involved—and all are passionately encouraged to do exactly that. To date, it is one of the best-organized, best-executed, best-leveraged campaigns to promote the protection of water quality.
Its origins were, perhaps, 1% genius and 9% necessity, but the remaining 90% is a step-by-step combo of perspiration and inspiration that keeps the social marketing engine running (drip-free, of course). The crowd-sourced impact continues to spread over a massive number of people. The buy-in is truly impressive.
The overall campaign is too new to have forged quantifiable changes to Puget Sound water quality. Gathering empirical data takes time. Change on such a massive scale takes time. But the patience and fastidious tweaking will surely pay off. These Washingtonians are impressive with their messaging. But the injection of forethought and meticulous planning into the grassroots marketing of this crowdsourcing movement is truly remarkable.
The 10 balloons contest is proof of the potential power of crowdsourcing. But in Puget Sound Starts Here, that potential comes to life, invigorating the future of our waterways.
Resources
The following contributed on behalf of the Puget Sound Starts Here steering committee:
- Tiffany O’Dell, Pierce County Public Works, Outreach Coordinator;
- Dave Ward, Puget Sound Partnership, Regional Stewardship Manager;
- Janet Geer, City of Bothell, Surface Water Program Coordinator; and
- Anne Dettelbach, Washington Department of Ecology, Municipal Stormwater Permit Specialist.
Web Resources (August 2015)
www.pugetsoundstartshere.org
www.fixcarleaks.org
www.scooppoop.org
www.naturalyardcare.info
