Tapping into this vast resource of wisdom and power goes under various names, such as crowd clout, crowd-sourcing, and crowd power. Today, the power of the crowd is used for everything from swapping photos, designing shoes, and discovering pharmaceuticals to developing software. In coming years, however, this global mass of humanity huddled around computers will shape policies, assist companies, and even impact countries as never before.

That’s where crowdpreneurs™ come in. People who utilize crowd power for the pursuit of innovation in the new virtual marketplace, crowdpreneurs are the entrepreneurial leaders of the online age.

There are two ways that entrepreneurs can tap into online crowdpower. First, it may be tool to supplement what you are already doing, such as Fluevog Shoes in Gastown (www.fluevog.com). Second, it may be the very core of your business; an example would be another local company, NowPublic Media (www.nowpublic.com).

John Fluevog founded his company 37 years ago in Vancouver, Canada, and has carved out an international niche for unique, pricy shoes. The road to success has been long and challenging, Fluevog has gained many devoted followers because of his eye-catching, quality product and his savvy, ahead-of-the-curve marketing. The company has grown by catering to this particular client base in major cities throughout the world. Fluevog has nine retail locations from New York to Los Angeles.

In order to thrive in the global marketplace, Fluevog needs to continually innovate; in fact, this is part of his company’s product identity. Furthermore, Fluevog’s creative approach to shoe design needs to be equally reflected in the company’s marketing and communication strategy in order to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace.

Fluevog has grasped the potential of the internet for a number of years, because it is ideally suited for a niche player. A cost-effective online presence allows the company to market to an international clientele. But using the internet as a tool has evolved for Fluevog. Following the overall trend from Web 1.0 to 2.0, his company has shifted away from a static list of product information to feature an interactive vehicle that engages its devoted customer base and enhances customer loyalty.

At the root of this powerful online presence is the concept of “crowdsourcing.” Stephen Bailey, Marketing and Communications Director of John Fluevog Shoes, Ltd. explains: “We receive over 10 million hits per month. We’ve obtained over 500 design suggestions for new shoes. Which lines of shoes to sell? Yes, over 2,000 contributions. And, the pictures. There are hundreds from all over the world where our shoes are being worn. Our online presence sells as much as one of our retail locations.”

In short, the company allows website visitors to design their own shoes, with the incentive that any chosen shoe design will be marketed and produced—and named after its designer. “Fluevogers,” as they are called, can also contribute feedback on shoe designs and company advertising.

Moreover, these contributors have developed their own online culture, an international community of people united by the Fluevog brand and their passion for the company.

Another company featured in the book is NowPublic; their tag line is “crowd powered media.” They are a leader in the field and were cited by Time magazine as one of the world’s top 50 web sites. They are a “crowdpreneurial” company in that they could not exist without the crowd. Their very business model is premised on the crowd.

One of the founders, Mike Tippett, is featured in e-Preneur. Tippett is a guy who started in the garage. He had been involved in internet businesses for about 13 years. He started to get interested in blogging and remote wireless devices. At that time there was an explosion of wi-fi products and camera phones were becoming more popular.

Tippett recalls that his “idea was just to blog about how these wireless devices would change our lifestyle. However, as part of that I noticed that there were all these camera phone sites where people would post their snapshots and in many cases they would mash out headlines to go with the photos.” He set up a small portion on the back of the site that was camera photos mixed in with the news. It turns out that people were very interested in what other people had to say about what was happening within the news cycle.

NowPublic has mushroomed into 150,000 regular contributors.

Tippett’s objective is to build the largest news organization in the world.

Tippett has two goals that will propel the future growth of NowPublic. First, they want to create a huge group of citizen journalists so that when news happens anywhere in the world we will have someone there.

Second, they want to foster a subset of credible people who will get the stories right. NowPublic will then become a credible, well-respected news service, along with their global coverage.