Crowdsourced Crowds

Indiana University’s men’s basketball team has struggled to get wins this year, but one thing it has in great supply is supportive fans. Already this year, Hoosiers have rushed the court, mobbed Coach Tom Crean in the lobby of Assembly Hall, and created a music video. Along the way, the team managed a couple monster dunks.

On Tuesday, the local internet spontaneously combusted with a promising new use for Twitter: Cheerleader.

From a new blog for Hysterical Hoosiers, the organizers explain the project:

Those of you students who have been to games this year, our atmosphere has been awesome. However, we can create an even more hostile environment. Each game, we will look players up on facebook, twitter, etc, and try and get some more personal info and dirt on a lot of thems. A couple days before each game, I will post chants we need to start up when certain players touch the ball, are shooting free throws, during time-outs, etc. Spread the word so we can make Assembly Hall the most hostile place to play in the country!

In a sign of the evolving value of media channels, the blog showed up after the Facebook and Twitter pages. By the end of the day, the Facebook page already had over 100 “likes” and the Twitter account had almost 400 followers.

The Hysterical Hoosiers Twitter account has caught the attention of the IDS, an IU newsman, a local sports bar, sports podcasts, the Crimson Guard, and the Big Ten Network. They are all dwarfed by Tom Crean, who is an active Twitter user himself (although he tends to tweet in bursts). This project would get a shot in the arm if he passed a link along to his 25,000 followers.

The suggested crowd actions will be curated and displayed on the new blog. The few visible in the timeline only reference Tijan Jobe and referee Jim Burr, but there is time to get the crowdsourcing in line before Saturday’s game against Northwestern. My big concern is a lack of good taste.

I’ve lamented this before: fans have great potential to be boors. Having more people swearing at referees or being classless in targeted taunts would not be a good outcome for Hysterical Hoosiers. More intimidating than being clever with words (mean or otherwise) is having a large crowd do complex things. I’d love to see this evolve into using the crowd to play Tetris in the stands, passing large blocks down the rows instead of waving Big Heads during free throws.

I think this is a creative way to elevate participation in and enjoyment of the games in Assembly Hall, as long as this is about crowdsourcing and not mobsourcing.

UPDATE 2/16: Founders Zach Litzelswope and Tony Adragna added a podcast explaining the project. They credit Bill Simmons with the idea, set their sights on being better than the Cameron Crazies, and talk about how some of these ideas might debut on Saturday. On a more ominous note, there may major fuzziness area about what is inappropriate (e.g., statutory rape) as a chant topic.