Laura Beckwith - Invention Blog 2

found on google

Social Media: 

Many sites such as Facebook, youtube and flickr are used by people across the board from many different backgrounds and areas using these sites. Flickr and YouTube are used to share personal, professional, amateur and aspiring videos and photos. Facebook is for sharing personal videos and endeavors. But where and how are the lines drawn between what the web company, such as Facebook, have the right to use images from their users? This could be considered in a way crowd sourcing. 
While they are not openly asking people to submit photos, designs, or personal property, when users sign up for a Facebook account, they agree to giving up a certain amount of their "right" to images, stated within the "term of agreement" that many overlook. 
What is to stop them from taking an image and using it for their own advertising purposes without giving someone credit, payment, or directly requesting the right to use said image. Everything that is put online is technically public, does anyone really "own" anything that is put online? From Facebook's stand point, they don't really have any use for the millions of images that users post. But what about a local high school's yearbook? If they notice they don't have images of a specific student, or they need a "cool background image" what stops them from simply going and using other peoples property? 

advertisement to raise awareness for Breast Cancer

Advertising: 

In advertising, there are endless possibilities for opposing sides on crowd sourcing. "Good design" is expensive. 
- Designers don't always have to have gone to a university or program to be able to design projects well. But there is an understanding and skill set in being able to take words and random thoughts, and put them together, kind of like starting with a shattered glass, and trying to put it together without seeing what it looked like to start with. As designers, there is a process that is carefully thought out in order for here to hopefully be a good end result. While the initial idea might not take very long, the important part is to follow through, keeping up with the times, making sure the ad is relevant. A design should communicate the companies views, values and personality, all in a matter of less than 5 seconds in an advertisement that most people will not ever remember. 
- For the company, having a ad that can communicate what the company stands for, what they are trying to convey and what is necessary to be shared with the audience. Is it worth their money to hire someone to get the job done right? Or is it easier to try to crowd source out to get many different ideas which may or may not be well thought out, or may accomplish a couple of things, but not all of them. 
- There is a likely chance that a designer who participates in crowd sourcing would argue that it gives them a chance to do something, without putting a ton of time or commitment into it. Working for 99designs.com could give them the chance to get noticed, or to design something cool. 

Creativity: 

Creativity can be affected by ALL and be seen how it effects the world around us. When a job is done well, by someone with passion, it is clearly translated through their work. When you do something that you really enjoy, weather it be painting, politics, photography, writing, designing something, a sport, whatever it could be regardless of your talent, it is shown through the work that it's something you are passionate about. You will find a way to do something in a way that people hadn't thought of before. 

some of my design projects from
second semester, while they don't look
"fun" because it is something I'm
passionate about, I really enjoyed doing them

- Designers creativity is impacted by crowd sourcing because it takes away opportunities for them to do what they love, where they are passionate, and figure out how to express a companies creativity and passion through their work. 
- Companies creativity, everyone of them has it. Some companies, like Google, may have a more creative streak than others. But regardless of how creative, or not, they may seem, every corporation has a message that they are trying to convey. How can they make their advertisements and products stand out from everything else in the world? When you think about a product design or a successful logo design, there are many things to consider, how will it be perceived in other countries? Is it recognizable? Is it easy to print in multiple different circumstances? Is it funny? Will it be memorable? These are just a few of the many questions that companies have to ask when they are coming up with a creative, orignal advertisement or design. 
- An excellent example of how crowd sourcing was used in a good way is through the Doritos Super Bowl Ads. While in general, I don't like the idea of crowd sourcing, I thought this was an extremely well though out campaign. The public was able to not only participate, but also vote on the videos that they wanted to see during the superbowl. What better way to make sure that a product sticks in the consumers mind then to allow them to be part of the creative process! 

Conjecture - When a company crowds sources, are they still getting honest, creative, orignal ideas? How much does the creativity behind design advertisements effect what the average person remembers? In other words, when a product is being represented, if it's creative, does the viewer remember what it was about? Do they remember what the ad was for? Or do they not remember it at all? If something is funny, are we more likely to remember it? Does color really play a large roll in the way we see images? If something is too busy, do we still understand it or does it distort our ability to comprehend?

Definition - Crowdsourcing; noun The practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. (Webster)

Value & Policy - One of the main reasons that I personally see a problem with crowd sourcing in design is that there are so many things that have been designed poorly. While I don't know what the case may for each thing, I think that one of the main criminals in poor design is the lack of attention to detail. People may rush through a design without really carefully considering every aspect. Everything in design should have a purpose and a reason behind it. "Design is intelligence made visible." - Alina Wheeler