Crowdsourcing (or, Why I’m Being a Hypocrite)
November 19th, 2008
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Recently I was introduced to crowdSPRING.com, a crowdsourcing site for creatives. I even went so far as to sign up, looking through many of the projects thinking to myself, “I can do way better than that.”
I’ve got mixed feelings when it comes to crowdsourcing. While I feel it works well for open source projects and similar projects, I don’t think it’s best suited to graphic design. On the one hand, I can see the benefits. For the buyer, they post their project and get many options to choose from. For the beginning designer, they get exposure and work they might otherwise not get. However, here’s what I see as the big downsides to crowdsourcing: 1) For the buyer, the quality of the entries aren’t always the best, many rather sub-par from designers who either didn’t read, didn’t understand or didn’t get the concept of the description of what you, the buyer, is looking for in a design and 2) for the designer, your hard work going into a design project for an entry more often than not goes unpaid because it wasn’t chosen by the buyer, and if it is chosen, the price paid to you is often well below market value and 3) (this is the big one) I feel it degrades the graphic design profession and professionals who work in this field.
So why did I sign up, and even participate in a few projects, given that I (and others) feel pretty strongly about crowdsourcing and spec work in general? For that, I ask you to look at the current state of the economy. We’ve got an economy in chaos, rising unemployment, and a shrinking pool of work for an already saturated graphic design market. I guess you could say I’m hedging my bets.
Right now, I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve got three steady clients that keep me in plenty of work and keep my bills paid and the lights (and heat!) on. One client is on the periphery of the construction industry, and for the time being, seems to be doing well, even expanding. While I’m glad things are going well for that client, I know that eventually the house-building (and commercial-building) crisis could hit him, and hit hard, at any time. This is what Ronnie Ray-gun called ‘trickle-down economics’. Another client deals in travel and incentive programs, and given that nobody has any money right now, I wonder how much longer his business will keep coming in. And the third deals in a startup VoIP/data backup/phone concierge service. I don’t have all the details on how well this company is doing, but they did just sponsor a NASCAR, so they must not be doing too terribly, or they have very good venture capital.
As great as my clients are, I know my income could dry up at the drop of a hat. That’s why I’m hedging my bets and participating in a crowdsourcing site, despite my feelings towards it. Now, I know there are NO!SPEC folks, and AIGA folks who will probably flame me for it. I’m willing to accept your ridicule. Because when it comes down to it, AIGA and NO!SPEC will not pay my bills. That’s up to me. And in an already sour (and worsening) economy, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do just to get by.
Suggestion for Chicago: Congestion Charging
July 12th, 2008
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Despite average area gasoline prices being over $4.25 per gallon, the City of Chicago has a traffic problem. A major traffic problem. The city and county also have a revenue problem, as evidenced by the Cook County board voting to raise the sales tax another one percent, bringing our sales tax up to 10.25% in the city. I have a suggestion that might help both problems at once.
In the United Kingdom, London has introduced a ‘Congestion Charge’ to get into Central London. New York has considered something like this, but the fact that they have some high bridge tolls to get into Manhattan kind of negates the need for such a charge. London’s congestion charge is £8, or roughly $16. I’m not suggesting something that drastic. I’m suggesting a $5 congestion charge to get into four of the most congested parts of the city:
- The Loop
- River North (including the Gold Coast, Old Town, and Streeterville)
- Lincoln Park (including New Town)
- Lakeview (including Wrigleyville, Boystown and East Lakeview)
The boundaries, in my plan, would be Roosevelt Rd. to the south, along Halsted St. to the west from Roosevelt Rd. to North Ave., then Ashland Ave. from North Ave. to Irving Park Rd, and Irving Park Rd. forming the north boundary, and Lake Shore Drive being the easternmost boundary.
There would, of course, be a few exemptions. Travelling through these zones via the Kennedy Expressway and Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/94), The Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), The Stevenson Expressway (I-55), or Lake Shore Drive (US 41) wouldn’t incur these charges. Exit these roadways, pass through the collection area, and you’ll be charged. Another exemption would be CTA buses and trains, as the aim of the congestion charge is to get people off the thoroughfares and to use public transportation more often. Taxi cabs would have to pay the congestion charge, but they would be allowed to pass on the $5 congestion charge to the customer. And of course pedestrians would be exempt. Bicycles, however, would be charged a lower fee of $2.50. People who live within these boundaries would also be exempt, and would be able to get a special transponder for their vehicles that indicates to the collection points that they are residents of this area.
Congestion Charge collection could be linked up with the Illinois Tollway system’s I-PASS transponders to make the whole thing easier. Enforcement could be setup with traffic cameras, recording license plates, and automatically mailing out $120 fines (plus the $5 congestion charge and a $25 ticketing fee, of course).
So what do you say, Chicago? Would you be in favor of congestion charging if that meant we could repeal the additional sales tax?
The Great Ringtone Debate
November 5th, 2007
Filed Under Rant | 2 Comments
I’m a big fan of Gapers Block, a local Chicago site. One of the regular features of Gapers Block is “Fuel,” a forum where a question of the week is posted, and the users answer and debate. The current topic is “What’s the ringtone on your cellphone?” This seemingly has turned into an anti-cellphone and anti-ringtone diatribe by many users. To quote one user, C-Note, “Vibrate. Ringtones are for shitheads.” Now, I realize that there are many, many people who have really bad ringtones — really loud unintelligible rap or the really loud unintelligible attention-seeking female starlet du jour. I hear it on the streets, trains and buses.
But I take a different approach to ringtones. First, I make my own. I’m not really interested in paying $2.99 or more to my provider (in my case, ‘The new at&t’) for a ringtone. Furthermore, I don’t like their selection. I tend to make my own. It’s fairly easy. I use an audio editing program, and trim the song or sound effect down to ringtone size, and upload it to my phone. I end up with higher quality tones that are usually unique. For instance, my ringer for business calls is an office phone (sounds like the phone ring they use in 24). I also have my phone set up to ring differently depending upon who is calling me, so I know before even looking at the phone whether I want to answer it or not. There is a camp which believes the phone should always be on vibrate. I, however, miss a lot of calls when the phone is on vibrate because I don’t always have the phone in my pants pocket. If its in my coat, my hoodie, or plugged in to the charger in another room, I would invariably miss calls. And being self-employed, missing calls is not a good thing.
Not all ringtones are bad. Sure, there are offenders more often than not, sonically assaulting you in public. But when done right, with moderation and taste, ringtones are a good thing.
I’m sick of Paris Hilton
June 10th, 2007
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It’s early June as I write this, and the story of the week on all the news outlets is Paris Hilton. First, she goes to jail to serve 23 days of her 45 day sentence for driving without a license, this after a DUI and driving on a suspended license. Two days later she is released by the sheriff for house arrest because of some unspecified “medical condition.” The judge, upon hearing this, is understandably furious, and hauls her back into court and decrees that she will now serve all 45 days of her sentence.
Does this sound more like a contrived reality TV show than the evening news? Yeah. It does. Yet, it has eclipsed the arguably more important stories of the day to lead the news on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, and here in Chicago, NBC 5, ABC 7 and Fox 32. Cooler heads prevailed at CBS 2 and WGN, only mentioning the Paris Hilton fiasco in the “top stories” part of the newscast, thankfully not leading with it. I will give credit where credit is due, though. Most of my local stations here in Chicago are pretty good at covering local news and issues, despite the fact that almost all of the local television media are network owned and operated stations (CBS 2, NBC 5, ABC 7, Fox 32, Telemundo 44, and Univision 66 are all owned by their respective networks – WGN is the exception, owned by The Tribune Company, publisher of the Chicago Tribune).
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It’s time to put some chlorine in the gene pool
April 25th, 2006
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I saw this story in the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday that made my blood boil. Apparently this guy stole a puppy from it’s backyard, called the owners and demanded $10,000 ransom, and when they either didn’t pay or didn’t pay on time, he took the puppy out to a cage and threw him in with a pit bull and Chesepeake Bay retriever. The puppy was attacked and killed by the dogs.
So, this scumbag made a plea bargain with the prosecution, and pleaded guilty, thinking he was only going to have to do probation. The judge decided otherwise, setting aside the plea deal and give him 15 months in prison and pay restitution. Though, seriously not enough, at least it’s something. Personally, I’d like to take this guy and throw him into a cage and feed him to, say, a pitbull and a lion and maybe even a puma. Let him feel the terror that the puppy felt in its final moments.
PA1N 16 is here.
January 1st, 2006
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Happy New Year, everyone! PA1N issue 16 is here at last!
Here are the PDF versions. Note, you’ll want to right click on the links and “Save As…” or “Save Target As…” to avoid opening them in your browser, especially on slower connections.
PA1N 16 Screen Version
PA1N 16 Print Version
Happy New Year! Enjoy!
PA1N T-Shirt Contest
December 10th, 2005
Filed Under Design, Randomness, Rant | Leave a Comment
This is my entry into the PA1N T-Shirt contest. The contest is over, but you can still see all the entries and the winning entry at the PA1N forum at RantMedia.
Pictures from Iraq
November 20th, 2005
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I have a friend serving in the military in Iraq. Mosul, to be exact. He takes photos all the time, and manages to put ‘em up on the web (how, I don’t know. I would have thought the military would forbid shit like that). Anyway, there were a couple of disturbing photos.
And I see these photos on the heels of the revelations that our military, under orders from our government, is using White Phosphor as an incendiary weapon on civilians in Fallujah. White Phosphor is basically napalm reformulated (using jet fuel instead of gasoline), but 1000 times more ’sticky’ and deadly. When white phosphor is dropped on people, it burns people right down to the bone, literally melting them away, strangely leaving clothing intact.
Which makes me wonder what happened to the child this doll head belongs to.
Is this really my United States??
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