Crowdsourcing: Arguments Against
Out of context: Reply #41
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- abettertomorrow0
I was looking at the origin of the term, turns out it was invented just a few years ago in this article:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archi…
To be fair, he does paint a pretty broad picture of what crowdsourcing is. There are four different examples he sketches out, only one of which is the spec work scenario.
The problem is he fails to differentiate between the advantages/ disadvantages of these approaches. The first example he gives is iStockPhoto. I see this more as a system of selling goods just like on eBay. There's always the possibility I can sell what I've created, multiple times in fact, and if I leave the site I still own it, so I don't end up working for nothing.
The spec work scenario (third example) is actually quite different because in that case I do the work, and there's a high chance I get nothing out of it at all. It's a great paradigm for business owners and terrible for workers.