I recognize you from the site (and twitter)…thanks for mentioning 99designs.

I think you will see the crowdsourcing model evolve overtime…remember these are still very early days. At 99designs we have made many changes from when we first launched…including most recently – blind projects. And we will continue to improve the site to drive the value up for both designers and clients alike. Be prepared for some exciting news just around the corner.

Cheers,
Jason
99designs.com

P.S. As Always…love getting feedback on the site…that's how we adapt to best serve our community.

I wanted to introduce to the audience “Crowdsourcing 101″. As someone who partake on a few 99Designs projects, I was interested in extending the scope beyond the design, which is why I included other creative services. I found your site worth mentioning, even if it's only beta or “feedback mode” as you called it.

I've seen a lot of discussions about crowdsourcing, most of them negative. I tried to balance it out and introduce a few elements to consider. At the end, all I see is that this is a trend (in form of contests) will more than likely stay around. However, if the people behind these sites are doing the best they can to give both the clients and the workers a “fair shake”, I'm all for it.

We've come to believe that blind contests or 'funneling' as I refer to them will work better with Spud and are looking at making this a default scenario for projects and 'open contests', an option for project owners. It's become clear that you have to respect the size of the 'creativity spectrum' and compared with graphics, written material just isn't as broad, hence the feeling that funnels are better suited to Spudaroo.com.

I have certainly inserted enough '' into this post so I will end it there but I agree with you, crowdsourcing is here to stay. Going forward its about working hard to level the playing field for both teams as no one appreciates fielding a pass up hill =)