Comments on: Anything That Can Be Turned into a Commodity, Will Be

By: Matthew T. Grant

Matthew T. Grant — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:04:25 +0000

Len – I appreciate the realism of this perspective. Crowdsourcing, like outsourcing before it, is part of the landscape now and individuals as well as organizations need to adapt to it.
As long as these practices are legal – and for all the talk of ethics, it’s interesting to note that no one is advocating legislative action against them – as you point out, someone will use them. What people need to be asking themselves is either “do I have a use for these practices?” or “can I offer a reasonable, competitive alternative to them?”

By: Ross Kimbarovsky

Ross Kimbarovsky — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:53:22 +0000

Len – I enjoyed the article. Thanks for mentioning crowdSPRING. I wonder how you define “commodity” and how you’d differentiate, based on that definition, traditional marketplaces – where designers bid based on pricing, from crowdSPRING, where buyers set their own price.
Best,
Ross Kimbarovsky
co-Founder
http://www.crowdspring.com

By: dominic

dominic — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:21:06 +0000

Thanks for this great discussion.
In the context of Newspapers and “maybe PR”, I wonder whether what’s at play is more desintermediation than outsourcing.

By: Paul Barsch

Paul Barsch — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:42:27 +0000

Len, good topic you’ve tackled here. Every organization should be on the lookout for improvement opportunities and “more value for less” money. That may come as a result of crowd/out sourcing, or simply looking at a challenge in a new way. Status quo isn’t an option for very long, there’s just way too much competition.