Good to see mainstream media catching up on the growth of Crowd-Sourcing and speaking with some of our favourite local tech guys, Ross “Mr Enterprise 2.0″ Dawson and Design Bay Founder and MD, Alec Lynch.
The story is a good overview of the pros and cons of the crowd-sourcing space, including the debacle that was “iSnack 2.0″.
Dawson makes some really interesting points about the coordination barriers that have the potential to get in the way of the crowd-sourcing movement. Anyone who’s ever tried to deal with multiple suppliers on any outsourcing or crowd-sourcing site will know that sometimes it feels like it’s just not worth the effort. Interestingly, coordination of resources is exactly the reason that many companies (in the organisational, not the legal, sense) came to life. As such, it’s funny to see that no matter how hard you try, even if you move particular functions completely outside of the organisation, you can’t hide from the coordination bogey man trying to make us less efficient than we could be.
That having been said, the ability of the Internet to create efficient markets is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly and is a reason why there’s so much potential for companies like DesignBay, 99 Designs and other crowdsourcing sites, if they can get it right.
I’ve successfully used DesignBay a number of times now and the experience has always been positive – Alec and his team have done a great job.
It’s definitely a viable option for businesses to use giving them the leisure of choice in response to their design briefs.
There are also clear benefits that crowdsourcing can provide to designers in giving them to have access to essentially a source of “business leads”, competing with the quality of their designs, not on price.
I have heard the argument that crowdsourcing could possibly “cheapen” design services, but I disagree with this. I think designers can also use crowdsourcing to fill in any down-time they may have, helping them work at capacity.
Overall, very positive to see mainstream media attention – I’m sure there’s more to come.
Hey Jeremy
I’m a big fan of crowd-sourcing too, but i can see why some designers could have an issue with what is essentially completing the work and then going to tender, especially if it becomes the norm.
And let’s take it to another level, beyond design. Would you guys be willing to complete a website and then put it up for consideration with no guarantee of being paid? Where does it end?
I’m all in favour of reseting the balance of power when it comes to the provision of services, but I think we need to be careful not to shift it completely to the buyers side.
Glad to see you’ve had positive experiences with DesignBay BTW. They seems like they’re on the right path.