Crowdsourcing Deconstructed

decon tructed

crowdsourcing

ed davad mms141

what i

crowdsourcing?

Basically a competition to solve a problem,

advances in multimedia technology have paved the way for crowdsourcing in the Internet age.

These include everything from digital video cameras to design software, from stock-photo agencies to online payment systems, and finally the “social� Web, which ties these all up together with its revolutionary way of allowing people to share and search for information.

Crowdsourcing is a “contest where designers submit competing designs in response to a customer’s design brief— and the winner receives a cash payment for their work.”–99designs.com

Crowdsourcing, in which jobs, from coding software to designing shoes, T-shirts and book covers, are done through online tournaments, is a relatively new

business model.

Example of a crowdsourcing contest for a book design The client received 147 design proposals from 26 designers for a book cover design. Designs are rated, eliminated and shortlisted, until the client decides on a winning piece, all in the span of less than one week.

There are literally hundreds of jobs available online, but there are also some who will take advantage of the

anonymity

that crowdsourcing affords. Unlike, say, eBay with its reputation system for members, crowdsourcing designers have to do their own research on potential employers to protect themselves and not get taken advantage of.

For each transaction on eBay, “buyers and sellers can choose to rate each other by leaving Feedback. Buyers can leave a positive, negative, or a neutral rating, plus a short comment. Sellers can leave a positive rating and a short comment.”—eBay.com

copyright Copyright issues with regard to images have come to the fore when it comes to crowdsourcing designs.

Design elements sourced from third parties such as stock-photography agencies like Dreamstime.com must be declared and paid for.

The rule of thumb is, if you do not own the image or if it is not categorized under Public Domain, you have to pay for the right to use it.

The crowdsourcing design process works because of continuous feedback between clients and competing designers.

It is also important in policing the ranks of designers for copycats, and reporting undeclared use of stock images.

feedback

handover A few years ago, sending gigabytes of files online is something we could only wish for. Thanks to file-hosting services like Hightail and Rapidshare, handing over large files to clients online is a breeze. Another technology that made design crowdsourcing possible is PDF technology.

Short for portable document format, PDF is a file format developed by Adobe Systems originally for graphic artists. It preserves formatting information from desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send documents and have them appear as they were originally laid out.

online payments

Finally, crowdsourcing would not have been possible without another Web technology, online payment systems. All done online, from checking your credit account balance in the crowdsourcing site to transferring the same to Paypal, an online payment service that allows you to get paid through credit cards or bank accounts without the risk of sharing financial information.

bonus: finding your work online

Nothing validates your value as a designer more than finding your work being read, sold, viewed, or just commented on online. It completes the virtual path taken online, from a client’s idea to the designers’ submissions, from the selection process to the handover, and finally to the printed page, proof that harnessing the wisdom of the crowd works.

For more of my crowdsourced designs, visit 99designs.com/ profiles/eddavad