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Editorial

Creative bazaar

We are all just one big family, aren’t we? Industry, crea­tives, consumers – all pulling in one direction and all ­wanting only the best for each other! Which is why »crowdsourcing« is such a wonderful idea: Together finding the best communication solution, one that makes the world a better place. As a reward for the many creative ideas one lucky participant is given a pat on the back and can then toss some more free designs into the big pot of things to do. Great – that’s Socialism 2.0 in action … It’s just a shame that one side has all the advantages while most of the people on other side are being taken for a ride.
And when I then receive a press release which tells me that »outsourcing is a long-standing and valid tactic in business operations and is now enjoying a revival and a new status in the ›social economy‹«, I am filled with fear and trepidation. For further on, it reads: »Because of the shortage of specialist staff, crowdsourcing systems present an attractive way of finding talent.« Sadly, for all this glowing prose, nothing more concrete emerges as remuneration than ›status‹. The sender of this particular mis­sive remarks with regret that the system is not appreciated in Germany as much as they would like. Well, I wonder why … Could it be that many people simply cannot afford to support this kind of collective madness? Or perhaps that businesses prefer to enter into a proper working relationship with their service-providers, one that doesn’t just exist in virtual space? Maybe even that they want someone who doesn’t just ›deliver‹, but someone who identifies closely with the commission he has been engaged for? Or because they’ve already read Wikipedia’s definition of crowd­sourcing: »… an open call to an undefined group of people, (…) to perform tasks, solve complex problems (…)«?
»Crowdsourcing is not the same as wage dumping (unfair competition on prices) for logo design from India«, comments Claudia Pelzer in the Crowdsourcing Blog (www.crowdsourcingblog.de). She continues: »Finding solu­tions to problems in the public sphere will, for example, become a big theme; the service industry will have to re-orient itself. (…) We must once and for all step outside the cathedrals and learn to get to grips with the bazaar.« A bazaar – that’s the word for it. A place for hard bargain­ing, a place where only the price counts, where the supplier is unimportant, where you’ll find cheap imitations and where the quality is often poor. Yes, you can find a few bargains here, but one thing is sure: One party is always the loser. I very much hope that our sector will never degenerate to the level of a bazaar!

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful time in the run-up to Christmas, and that you have time to stop and draw breath and gather inspiration.



Bettina Schulz

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