A thoughtful critique of crowd-sourced design contests?
July 19, 2011 7:54 AM Subscribe
Looking for thoughtful essays and/or screeds on the evils of "crowd-sourced" design contests, or design by committee in general?
I'm hoping to convince some very gifted writers and journalists of the folly of commissioning a user-submitted design contest. Of course these sorts of things always generate outrage among designers when they come about, but I can't think of any sustained arguments against them to which I can link.
Do you have a favorite thoughtful critique of crowd-sourcing, spec work, or the democratization of design? Thanks, MeFites!
I'm hoping to convince some very gifted writers and journalists of the folly of commissioning a user-submitted design contest. Of course these sorts of things always generate outrage among designers when they come about, but I can't think of any sustained arguments against them to which I can link.
Do you have a favorite thoughtful critique of crowd-sourcing, spec work, or the democratization of design? Thanks, MeFites!
Crowd sourcing isn't design by committee.
posted by devnull at 7:58 AM on July 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by devnull at 7:58 AM on July 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Crowdsourcing & Spec Work: Not a Great Rule of Thumb
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:01 AM on July 19, 2011
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:01 AM on July 19, 2011
Response by poster: devnull, true enough. But, as I'm witnessing with the contest in question, once you empower a bunch of laypeople to create, they also are quite profuse in their critiques of other designs, including high-quality ones. So it feels relevant although you're right it's a separate issue.
Thanks to others for the great links already!
posted by coolhappysteve at 8:05 AM on July 19, 2011
Thanks to others for the great links already!
posted by coolhappysteve at 8:05 AM on July 19, 2011
Meetings of any sort, along with a healthy dollop of collaboration too!
posted by mfoight at 8:13 AM on July 19, 2011
posted by mfoight at 8:13 AM on July 19, 2011
Do designers also oppose things like the contest for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Was that considered spec work as well as since only one the of 2,573 entries was compensated? Does this apply to poetry competitions and such as well?
posted by zeikka at 8:47 AM on July 19, 2011
posted by zeikka at 8:47 AM on July 19, 2011
Not an argument against crowd-sourcing per se, but the #savejon scandal from back in 2009 is a good example of how crowd-sourcing can go bad. If you give completely random people a chance to win some sort of contest, a decent number of them are going to cheat in some way, and the end result can be that winner has passed off someone else's work as their own.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:48 AM on July 19, 2011
posted by burnmp3s at 8:48 AM on July 19, 2011
Best answer: Orthogonality's passionate takedown of Givewell crowd-sourcing their website design seems relevant here. I would think journalists would be especially sensitive to a perception that they do not add value.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 9:35 AM on July 19, 2011
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 9:35 AM on July 19, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by clearlydemon at 7:57 AM on July 19, 2011 [1 favorite]