Crowdsourcing the Good, Bad and the Ugly

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an individual employee or contractor, and outsourcing  them to a group of people or social community, through an "open call" to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions. The best idea is then selected and that individual is paid. Many dislike crowdsourcing because it is spec based while others that it is a cost effective alternative. Some designers use it as a way of sharpening their design skills. Many freelancers use it as a learning tool to hone their design skills.

In these times we are going to see the rise of crowdsourcing on a much larger scale. The reason is a lot of companies and individuals believe that getting a crowd to do something is better then using an individual. Not only will you get what you want from a crowd, but you will also get ideas that were never thought of. This would be the good.

Then you have the realistic view that crowdsourcing is just a means of creating what the project director want by following their instruction. This also greatly reduces the creative energy needed to do something and cheapens the price. While you may get highly qualified people to contribute to your project many crowdsourcers have had failure after failure which is why they allow themselves to work this way. This is the bad and the ugly. Crowdsourcing takes away the inventor and the invention; it reduces the motivation to do a good job and cheapens the desired outcome.

We would love to hear your comments and views on crowdsourcing, so please share them with us.