Crowdsourcing: a neologism for the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or community, through an “open call” to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions.
– Wikipedia
Crowdsourcing: a lack of effort by a person or agency who is short on creativity and originality. Laziness.
– TM
That about sums up crowdsourcing. Any questions?
Ok, maybe I’m not being fair… Some great companies have been built on crowdsourcing. Take Threadless for example; an online apparel store whose products are created by the community. Without the submissions of the public they would not exist.
But what if you were trying to create a brand or campaign for your company? You are paying for a service that employs the best professionals and creative ability that solves for your problem… or so you thought. With everyone and their grandmother having a computer and a pirated version of Photoshop or Illustrator, they are all designers. Now, what you thought was your money hard at work is merely a community initiative, with hacks and talentless “designers” creating your image. Along with this comes mediocrity and predictablity… Two things which are never good when trying to stand out from the herd.
Read this post on SpecWatch for an example of crowdsourcing gone wrong.
Maybe surgeons will be next… I know, I know, we aren’t doctors… But we do keep your business alive.