In announcing their newly launched spec-work writing contests on Twitter, Chicago-based Crowdspring repeatedly twattered a quote from Mark Twain that goes something like this – “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.*” Granted, that sorta IS the business model Crowdspring are launching, but wasn’t sure that the literary giant was cool with his words being used to justify unpaid writing contests. So we asked him. His response?
“Gawdammit it all. When I said that, I meant to write because you love it, and to write about what you want. I wasn’t referring to writing copy for a Tampon brochure, on spec, for some company on the internet.**”
He also told us his thoughts on folks using his quotes on Twitter to promote their services. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.*” Dude’s got a point. His thoughts on writers working without pay? “Prosperity is the best protector of principle.*” Words to live by.
*real Twain quotes. **not so much [Twitter]
Speaking of crowdsourcing, writing and the interwebs, seems there’s this company that plans to fill the search engines with all sorts of how-to goodness, so that when you search for, say, anything, you’ll find one of their pages filled with helpful pay-per-click ads and clicky-on-the-linky banners. Demand Media is another of these “let’s democratize the creative industries by paying everyone peanuts” crowdsourcing outfits eager to cash in on tough economic times and out-of-work creatives. According to The New York Times, this outfit is supposedly worth between one and two billion smackeroos. Yeah, that’s with a ‘B’. And like most crowdsourcing outfits they like to boast about the size of their “community” (about 7,000 eager beavers). Pay for articles? Princely sum of $20. If you’re a skilled word mechanic, fret not. Enthusiastic copy-editors can pick up $3.50 a pop for editing articles to pass an “automated plagiarism checker“. What can possibly go wrong there? Of course, the snooty, elitist New York Times writer has an issue with this, preferring to make more than the estimated $1.00 per hour it would have netted him for writing the article for Demand Media [New York Times]
Speaking about crowdsourcing, seems Wired columnist and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University Jeff Howe might have an itty-bitty issue about design contest sites bogarting the word, and the concept, of crowdsourcing to market their services to the business world. In a Twitter missive on the weekend, Howe twattered that sites like Crowdspring (and one supposes, 99designs, Logo My Way et al) “short-circuited the promise of crowdsourcing” itself. 
Another whiny, snooty designer carping about the evolution of the design industry? Hardly. Howe’s the dude that coined Crowdsourcing the word. And wrote Crowdsourcing the book. And runs Crowdsourcing the website. And Twitters by the handle Crowdsourcing. Ahhh, what does he know? [Twitter]
Speaking about spec work and design contests (we sorta were), the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce is looking to help local businesses improve their commerce. You know, selling stuff and services, as most local Chambers of Commerce are supposed to do. In order to help local businesses sell their stuff and services, the helpful folks at Ann Arbor decided that they needed a new logo. Which is cool. So they’re hosting an unpaid logo design contest. Which, if you consider that designers are supposed to be taking part in this commerce stuff too, isn’t. [Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce]
Speaking of spec work, told you last week about a whole bunch of Belgian ad agencies who took part in a virtual strike against spec work. That’s the ongoing, and flourishing practice of “gimme some free shit” that many in the design profession despise with a passion usually reserved for hating really bad stuff. Some in the design community, including yours truly, were impressed that a whole bunch of design and 
advertising companies had managed to put their competitive differences aside and do something together. You know, in a cool “all in for the better good” kind of vibe. Looks like we were a little premature, as no sooner had the anti-spec folks shuttered their websites, than some upstart decided to hoover on the campaign, telling people that unlike the large agencies, they would certainly be interested in pitching on spec. And that the big agencies could suck it cause they were big and mean. Munich-based ad agency Three View, claiming that the “rules are different now“, hoisted a home page that was identical to the original virtual strike artwork, with their version (above) proudly proclaiming that they had ‘punked’ the major agencies even “if it does ruffle a few feathers“. Kinda reminded me of the People’s Front of Judea skit from Monty Python‘s classic flick The Life of Brian. If you’re a fan of Monty Python you’ll get the “splitters!” reference and find it as amusing as I did. If you’re not, this video (NSFW) might help. [Three View GMBH]
Related Posts
- Snippets: Crowdspring to offer spec writing, NEA holds a spec work contest & other news
- Snippets: Spec work & crowdsourcing edition
- Defending crowdsourcing & design contests. The platitudes of spec work.
- The dirty little secret that most spec, design contest & crowdsourcing sites don’t want designers to know
- Numbers – The ever-shifting realities of crowdsourcing and design contest sites.
Tags: crowdsourcing, humor, news, snippets, spec work
Steve,
I totally agree! You make the outrageous (and I’m outraged–shame on you, Ann Arbor!) entertaining, too!
Thanks for your well-written article.
Catherine
Loved the NYT piece, Steve. These two quotes in particular stood out for me:
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Daniel Roth of Wired worried about Demand’s ubiquity and efficacy, writing, “imagine a classroom where one kid raised his hand after every question and screams out the answer. He may not be smart or even right, but he makes it difficult to hear anybody else.”
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Compensation and confusion aside, you can’t doubt Demand’s relevance. The company’s article “How to Throw a Super Bowl Party,” was big all week. The secret: “Buy several six-packs of beer. Keep the beer in a cooler close by so you don’t have to run to the fridge when it’s third and inches. Restock the cooler at halftime.”
You can’t put a price on that kind of advice.
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@ Catherine – thanks very much for stopping by, your kind words and your comment. I figure that we might as well have a few laughs once-in-a-while, even if we’re discussing PITA subjects. Besides, I’ve waited much too long to post a link to my fave Monty Python skit.
@ David – Thanks for adding those to the discussion. I remember reading an old “how to design a logo” feature on the Demand owned ehow.com site a few years back. It’s gone now, but it was along the lines of:
More words to live by.
Steve -
Just had to leave a comment, since you’ve got my tweet handle there (@bhc3) in Jeff’s tweet. I’m not a designer, but I am tracking the ongoing industry discussion on spec work crowdsourcing. Appreciate reading your perspective.
Hutch