AIGA San Francisco continues its series of discussions on the business of design called “D.Talks.” Throughout the year the seminars will present practical information about current trends in the design profession as well as enable a more robust dialogue within our community.

Crowdsourcing is a new term for most designers. Many know it as community-based design or distributed participatory design. It takes a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to a group (crowd) of people or community in the form of an open call. Is it spec work, or a trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals? Our panel will lead a group discussion.

Networking: 6:30 PM
Discussion: 7:00 PM

Tickets available at the door.

Light refreshments will also be served before the seminar.

Panelists:
Jason Aiken
Business Development and Marketing Manager, 99designs.com
Jason is the Business Development and Marketing Manager at 99designs.  He is responsible for strategic partnerships to drive the number of opportunities available to designers and improve the feature functionality of 99designs.com. Additionally, Jason heads up all marketing and public relations initiatives for 99designs including community management and plays a large role in customer support. 

Jody Turner
Founder
CultureofFuture.com
Jody Turner is a premier connector of inspirational people and information, researching for companies, presenting at events, reporting influential design and cultural lifestyle trends worldwide. Jody’s focus is meaningful innovation and dynamic strategies for betterment. She is a member of the Board of Directors, Architecture + Design Museum L.A.
Jody’s work can be found at Twitter.com/CultureofFuture and Fast Company Expert Design Blogger.

Christopher Simmons
Principal/Creative Director, MINE™ 
Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts
Christopher is a designer, writer, educator, design advocate, and principal of the noted San Francisco design office MINE™. An author and columnist, Christopher lectures on design issues for colleges, universities, and professional associations, and frequently participates as a judge in major design competitions. He is a past president of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA.

Moderator/Host:
Josh Levine
Director of Strategy
Great Monday
For over ten years Josh has helped global brands engage consumers and empower employees through design, strategy, and marketing programs. His agency Great Monday designs culture driven brand programs to help companies communicate inside and out. Josh regularly speaks, writes, and leads workshops on brand and business. 

Resources and Articles on Crowdsourcing

• CA, Embracing Marginalization by David Baker
• WIRED, The Rise of Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe
• AIGA National policy on spec work

Additional Reading

• WIRED, Is Crowdsouricng Evil? by Jeff Howe
• WIRED, Social Networks and Public Policy
• WIRED, Africa Awaits

If you’d like to add to the discussion, post a link to an article on this page below.

Identity by Shawn Rosenberger, Thermostat

7 Comments

On 13 Jan 2010 @ 3:06pm, 3:06pm David Muro II wrote:

Just checking out Marissa Mayer’s talk on Google’s user experience design from the AIGA national conference and at 15:55 she goes into how Google leveraged crowdsourcing to translate Google into over 150 languages. They did it by adding the following line.

“If you don’t see your native language here, you can help Google create it by becoming a volunteer translator. Check out our Google in Your Language program.” – Google Language Tools.

She goes into what the need was, where she got the inspiration and how they implemented it. Worth a listen: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/video-makethink-2009-mayer

On 14 Jan 2010 @ 8:44am, 8:44am David Muro II wrote:

Jeff Howe’s blog, “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business,” has a wealth of info as well and is worth checking out.

http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/

On 14 Jan 2010 @ 3:51pm, 3:51pm stevemcgee99 wrote:

@David Millsaps – perhaps the first stage of commoditizing design is centralized markets for crowdsourcing, where owners of the market reap profits from the thousands of transactions.
But the second stage will be an open-source market that nobody owns, like a peer-to-peer. Then businesses like 99Designs will have to try something else.
Either way, technology will always lower cost for any product or service, which is why we’ll always have to work. ;-)

On 15 Jan 2010 @ 4:29pm, 4:29pm akajoshlevine wrote:

Thanks everyone for a great conversation. Would love to keep the conversation going. Please continue to post thoughts, links, and anything else to advance the conversation.

On 20 Jan 2010 @ 3:24pm, 3:24pm David Muro II wrote:

Appears Bravo TV’s in the crowdsourcing business as well …

http://www.bravotv.com/launch-my-line/launch-your-line

“Two lucky runners up will win $100”

Anyone have thought on the issue?

On 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:39pm, 8:39pm Don Savoie wrote:

Thank you to all who participated in this great conversation.

On 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:57pm, 8:57pm Julio wrote:

Wow, just saw this. Sure adds another layer of necessary discussion: http://www.logodesignlove.com/99designs-kiddie-designers