Is Crowdsourcing ever a good idea?

7th July, 2011 by Brenton Murray

I was asked to repsond to this question in the latest Desktop magazine. My response:

Using free labour for commercial gain is never a good idea. Businesses profiting from crowdsourcing base their business model on multiple designers submitting free ideas. Without free labour they don’t have a business. You’ll always find people willing to work for nothing with the possibility of payment, but that doesn’t make it right. Crowdsourcing is exploitation. AGDA has a 'No Free Pitch' resource for its members should they be asked to participate in speculative work. The clients of crowdsourcing businesses are relying on a competition, not research, consultation and expertise, and are missing the opportunities and value that investment in design bring.

What do you think?

http://blogs.agda.com.au/blog

Brenton Murray, President, AGDA: Director, BMD graphic design

View comments

The most noticeable problem in the design crowdsourcing sphere is plagiarism.
You simply cannot get original ideas for so little investment.
Posted by Sean Elsegood on 13th July 2011

'Crowdsourcing' devalues what we do and damages the industry that we are so passionate about. It prevents the client / designer from developing a creative and purposeful relationship. The crowdsourcing websites that I have explored seem to only value the client and don't respect the creative. It's a sure fire way to burn young talent.
Posted by Simon Ashford on 19th July 2011

I was recently talking to someone in IT about this whose response was "If that's what the market wants, you need to adapt". I responded with "fine, provide me with IT support for a month, and if I like your service, I'll pay you for it." Of course, he was outraged.
Posted by Alicia Whetton on 20th July 2011

I think any type of system that commoditises design like this, rather than treat is as a professional service—such as accounting, law and medicine—is fundamentally flawed. Design is not a commodity, like sand for example, that you should always buy at the lowest price. It is a quality based process which should be treated with the same respect as other diagnostic based professional services.
Posted by Frank Stillitano on 2nd November 2011