Crowdsourcing Comes With Plenty of Opinions, Questions and Debates

When I posted the launch of Victors&Spoils many a colleague in education had questions and opinions. They varied from fear of a talent drain, the lack of direction and voice for brands and of course the employability of our graduates. But I got this Facebook post today from an repspected alumni who voiced his thoughts, it opened a big and passioante debate.

I wanted to share these thougths and gain other insights and comments. 

Anthony...  

I'm looking at - Victor & Spoils, Poptent, and all these other sites trying to crowdsource young and hungry talent and I'll I can think is what a waste.

The next Ogilvy, Goodson, or Bogusky will not get the support and learning that comes with senior staff or the support structure to make mistakes.

Instead they will sell their "brightest ideas" for pennies on the dollar to "old boomer" businessmen, then will end up get factory jobs to work on their novels. If I was you, I'd invest in Penguin Books. When we (they) are done driving away all the talent in this industry they are going to make a killing! 

In advertising we have been complaining about the RFP process for years - its a drain on paying clients, not representative of the work and thinking that goes into what we do... ect.

How is the next logical step to download that on to freelancers?

Yes, there is a hole in the market. There are a lot of talented and educated people who could be doing great work that are not.

But you know what else is tragic?

The social, economic and environmental problems facing the world today.

If your thinking of throwing your work onto a crowdsourcing site I have a simple suggestion.

BE AN ENTREPRENEUR.
START A COMPANY.
FIND A PROBONO CAUSE/CLIENT
DO GREAT WORK.
GET NOTICED.
AND NEVER EVER SELL YOURSELF SHORT.

You might just find your taking resumes instead of handing them out. 

(That's some Switch Thinking - free of charge)