Crowdsourcing - 99 Designs
I love the new revolution that Web 2.0 and social networking is bringing to the internet. It’s a great way to use technology to improve upon the efficiency of everyone and everything, and to capitalize on currently hidden utility in the system.
The newest thing I’ve heard about is Crowdsourcing:
Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design[1] and distributed participatory design), refine an algorithm or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).
A great example that I stumbled upon is 99 Designs. If you have some sort of design need, for example you want a logo, then you put up a description and the amount of money that you’re willing to pay the winner, and you can get hundreds of people all working on and submitting designs. You then pick the best and pay out. This way, you can get tons of more ideas to choose from than if you had followed the traditional method and hired one design firm.
Phenomenal idea, and we’re still in the beginning phase of the revolution that the internet can bring to our lives.
