Comments on: The Economist on online freelancing and the future of work: crowdsourcing goes mainstream

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:28:59 +0000

Hi Angelina, great to hear about your experiences as a freelancer using these tools.
I have to say I have until now tended to focus on the use of crowdsourcing tools from the client perspective, but I’ve realized it’s time to look at the provider side too.
I’d love to hear more about what you’ve been doing when we next catch up!

By: 3rd design

3rd design — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:13:32 +0000

I am using Odesk right now and I am happy that I have a provider who is very efficient and very effective of his work. I assigned her a part-time job. It’s really cost-effective since you only have to pay for the services rendered.

By: Angelina Russo

Angelina Russo — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:20:10 +0000

Thanks for this article Ross.
One of the comments I hear regularly is that crowdsourcing ‘takes away’ the expertise of the designer, offering opportunities to anyone who can design a logo/website.
I guess that is true to a certain extent but creating and maintaining long term sustainable client relationships is a much more difficult thing to accomplish if you don’t have the expertise to deliver and/or are not set up to take advantage of a broader client base.
As I undertake my own crowdsourced design experiments online I am constantly surprised at how far expertise can take you. In my experience, it is actually quite difficult to fake expertise, particularly when you’re aiming for long term client relations. As a designer, I can only delight in crowdsourcing as it has done the job of promoting my fledgling experiments, offering ongoing client orders and now, the opportunity to work with a start up in product development. Being old enough to remember how difficult and expensive these activities were 20 years ago, I am delighted that this paradigm is finally supported by good quality ambient technology!
Cheers

By: techgeek

techgeek — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:39:13 +0000

Freelancers and contractors are a boon for SMB’s. We use sites like elance, odesk and my fave – mechanical turk (mturk.com)to fill in short term positions that require experts. Better work and huge cost savings. It works every time! Communication technology has also helped – with services like Sococo (sococo.com) or webex, freelancers can collaborate with other team members in real time and productivity gets better. its a win win for everyone.