by YannigRoth

Should Creative Crowdsourcing Participants Get Working Contracts And Salaries?

–

For one year, there have been two important legal events that could shape the future of the crowdsourcing landscape. First, on October 26th 2012, one-time Crowdflower worker Christopher Otey filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Crowdflower alleging that the platform violated the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act. Second, on October 22nd 2013, a group of Yelp reviewers filed a class-action lawsuit (PDF) against the business review site, claiming that they are unpaid writers who are vital to the company’s existence. These two lawsuits are claiming Labor law applications to micro-task crowdsourcing activities.

Could this happen in creative crowdsourcing?

Up to this day, neither of these lawsuits -which have very similar claims- have been closed, which shrouds the entire crowdsourcing industry in a big question mark. In this post, I briefly describe these cases, clarify the legal situation in the U.S. and in France, and tell whether creative crowdsourcing participants should get working contracts with platforms and sponsors – or not. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Gelehrter Betriebswirt, Professionneller Tänzer und Animationskünstler

Die "Fette Moves" Crew, mit Florian Genal, links

Die “Fette Moves” Crew, mit Florian Genal, links

Ich habe seite langer Zeit nichts mehr auf Deutsch geschrieben. Seit sehr langer Zeit, sogar! In diesem Post möchte ich Florian Genal vorstellen, ein professionneller Tänzer aus Karlsruhe, der nebenbei auch sehr erfolgreicher 3D-Künstler ist. Florian a.k.a. FlojoArt hat in der Tat über 10 Wettbewerbe auf eYeka gewonnen (bei seinem letzten Interview vor über einem Jahr waren es noch 7), und wird wahrscheinlich in den nächsten Monaten noch einige Preise gewinnen. Wer ist er? Wie kam er zu diesem Hobby? Was macht er heute?

Hier sind einige Antworten… und die Erkenntniss, dass mann im Leben alles mögliche erreichen kann. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

To End 2013, Some Stats From The Crowdsourcing Timeline

Click to access timeline

Click to access timeline

It’s been a little more than a year that I started curating crowdsourcing initiatives by the World’s Best Global Brands on this timeline. As I write this, there are now 479 examples of crowdsourcing listed, with information about the initiatiors, objectives and results of each initiative – at least I try to keep it updated to the best I can! I’m extremely humbled that some of the brightest minds in business and academia (@lindegaard, @jtwinsor, @bogers, @klakhani, @masscustom)  also appreciate this timeline. As we are ending 2013 these days, and starting 2014, let me just share some facts based on this timeline’s data. Just scroll down and let the visualizations speak by themselves. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Jan Marcinek (@Kryspin) Launches Visionnaire.co in the Czech Republic

visionnaire-co

This week, Jan Marcinek from Czech Republic launched his crowdsourcing platform, Visionnaire.co. Why do I blog about this? Because I have interviewed Jan for my thesis a couple of times in the past, and discovered a passionate and talented young man who wanted other creatives to get the same opportunities than he got. Jan, alias Kryspin, is indeed a successful crowdsourcing participant, and wanted to launch a local platform in the Czech Republic. Now, he did just that. Here’s a short Q&A with Jan. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

How South Africa’s Freedom Charter (1955) Was Inspired by Citizen Input

Image via sahistory.org.za (click on the image to access article)

Image via sahistory.org.za (click on the image to access article)

I’m currently reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” published in 1994. I’m only half way through the book, but as today is Mandela’s funeral, I wanted to share an excerpt about the creation Freedom Charter, which was inspired by ideas of thousands of South-Africans, and therefore relates to my current topic of interest, crowdsourcing. In 1955, the South African Congress Alliance indeed invited citizen to submit their ideas for a statement of core principles for the country, and they gathered thousands of ideas. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

Jeremiah Owyang Présente Crowd Companies à Le Web Paris

Logo-CrowdCompanies

Cet après-midi, à Le Web Paris, Jeremiah Owyang a présenté son dernier projet: Crowd Companies. Dans sa présentation “Is Your Company Ready For The Next Ten Years?” (Votre entreprise est-elle prête pour les 10 prochaines années?), il a présenté quelques entreprises qui, se basant sur les ressources apportées par la foule, bousculent des industries établies: Airbnb qui se frotte à l’hôtellerie, Uber qui embête les chauffeurs de taxis et d’autres. Les habitudes de consommation changent, et Crowd Companies a pour projet d’aider les grandes entreprises à s’adapter à l’essor de la consommation collaborative, de la fabrication à domicile (maker mouvement) et de la co-création entre clients. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

News Coverage About Crowdsourcing

what is crowdsourcing CBS news

On this blog I’ve gathered academic representations of crowdsourcing, whitepapers about the same, or videos about crowdsourcing platforms by OVC – all of which I try to update regularly. But let’s be honest, this is mainly niche content that interests academics, thought leaders or crowdsourcing participants, and does not tell much how the rest of the world perceives crowdsourcing.

Yet, in a world where crowdsourcing is getting mainstream, it might be even more interesting to broaden our perspectives a bit, and to see how mainstream media treats the topic. If you look up “crowdsourcing” on YouTube you will find lots of conferences, panels, student projects and explainer videos. But what about real media coverage about crowdsourcing? Here’s a list of clips that discussed crowdsourcing in the news (mainly on TV), presented in chronological order (years). I will try to keep it updated.

Continue reading →