Crowdsourcing

I recently browsed several websites which used crowdsourcing as a business model. I first checked out www.threadless.com, a website selling graphic T's designed by the site's members. Consumers submit graphic designs, surrendering all rights to the design, other users make comments allowing designers to improve designs, Threadless picks designs, presses them, and sells them for profit. Clearly this is an extremely effective business model because all R & D is done by the collective rather than paid designers.

Intrigued by this idea, I googled 'crowdsourcing' and 'open-source design.' The results of the 'open-source design' search yielded a lot of websites involving open-source web design. I browsed 5 different sites in this category. Each offerred free web templates designed in conglomerate by the users of the site. The site didn't stand to gain any profit from these designs. Everything was free. I was a bit thrown by this. The very idea behind this website completely outsources professional web design. In fact, one could say it diminishes the economic value of the business completely. It seemed almost anti-capitalistic.

Personally, I haven't used or purchased from a site using built-in crowdsourcing. I can firmly state that I would definitely not participate in these projects either; however, I would buy from them. The products turned up by businesses using this model are not only original, they are abundant. Sites like this also cater to the generic consumer as well as the individual. The consumer is given exactly what he or she desires...and we all know everybody loves a crowd-pleaser.

Peace, Love
Evan