Ever wanted to get a jump-start on your design or development business but your portfolio lacked the bite needed to close the deal or even generate interest? Ever wish you could just show a project lead what you can do for them? Crowdsourcing maybe the answer you’re looking for to get the projects you want without having an impressive portfolio.

Crowdsourcing Design (or Development) is basically when a project is outsourced to an undefined group, which could range from a select few to an entire industry, and most likely includes various experience levels. There are some pretty popular websites where you can try to make money selling your design (or skill) based on the project description or direction.  These are a few:

• 99Designs, crowdSpring – Web/Graphic/Brand Design
• Spudaroo – Business Plans, Resumes and Content Creation
• PopTent, OpenAd.Net, Zooppa – Advertising
• NameThis – Brand Name Identity

The big question though is “Can these sites really help a typical freelancer/consultant?” There are a few things that should be considered:

• On a well marketed site, there’s a wide range of projects that could fit your skill set.
• You can watch and analyze a potential client’s behavior, especially if they include in the project description that they would like to use you as a long-term partner.
• It is possible to see feedback from other projects as well as yours, therefore learning the client’s tastes/sense of style and working it into your own project.
• If your work was not selected, you can use the piece as part of your portfolio.
• Under the right circumstances, you can network with clients, even if you lose the bid.
• From a buyers perspective, they get to see many ideas from many point of views.

However, the disadvantages seems to outweigh the advantages:

• The more people entering a project, the less chances you’ll get honest feedback.
• Chances of you earning repeat business from a client are slim.
• The value of your work might actually be worth less than the time you put into it.
• Unless it’s a team project, there can only be one winner.
• It’s harder to claim originality when your conceptual work is seen by the public.
• Some clients will not allow you to use your project entry in your portfolio due to fair usage or non-disclosure agreements.
• While it rarely happens (and sites are tightening up on this rule), some clients may abandon their project altogether.

There are professionals within the creative industry who frown upon crowdsourcing design for various reasons, but the one reason that they all agreed on:

It devalues the content creation process therefore driving down the price, forcing professionals who put in work for years to double or even triple their efforts.

While I do agree with some of the principles, I also understand that the US Dollar is quickly losing its edge. What use to be expensive to create in the US is now more affordable elsewhere. So, crowdsourcing sites are working hard to “level the playing field” by educating customers on how to make the most of your project and how higher pay usually equals more realistic expectations of higher quality. They are also looking to redefine the rules to make it less like a contest and more like a job bid. Recently, 99Designs introduced a “blind contest” feature, where only the contest holders can see all the project designs, helping the artist keep their design work original and not just an “improved copy”.  Steps like this will help make crowdsourcing design an alternative to getting work.

So, is crowdsourcing just another word for “contest”? It really depends on which side of the table you’re sitting on in this debate. One thing is for sure, this “fad” isn’t fading away anytime soon.

Disqus and JS-Kit both recently made major updates to their commenting systems, bringing them into the world of realtime. Not only can you see new comments show up immediately, but both also aggregate comments from across the social web. So, what’s the difference between the two? Why would you choose either?

Disqus has actually split into two separate but complimentary services. Disqus Comments and Disqus Profile. Disqus Comments is the popular commenting solution that the company is well known for. If you’re already a Disqus user, you don’t have to do anything special to activate the latest features. Simply change to the new default theme Narcissus. Besides all the standard features your used to, comments update in realtime. Under your real comments, you’ll find the social reactions from people across the social media world who have talked about your post. The reactions are powered by uberVU.com and Backtype.com. According to their blog, the new Disqus also includes:

• New moderation panel. We started from scratch to make it the best way to moderate both large and small volumes of comments. Partially inspired by an email inbox, it was built to cut down on the amount of time spent on moderation.
• Improved automated tools, including a new spam filter and new ways to combat abusive language in comments.
• Other improved moderation tools such as multi-site moderation, multiple moderators, blacklists and whitelists.
• New theme customization options, such as the ability to set default avatar pictures for your site. These features are meant to give you better integration with your site.

Disqus Profile is a way for commentators to control their comments. The new Disqus will actually go out and find comments that may be yours so that you can claim them. Other features include:

• Vanity URLs. You can now access your public profile by going to disqus.com/{your username}
• Enable the option to automatically share your comments on Facebook, Twitter, and other services.
• Full shared control with publishers. You have the ability to edit and delete comments without impacting the site that the comment is on.

Disqus and JS-Kit are different products with different goals. While Disqus seems to be focused on the actual comments and commentators, JS-Kit seems to be more about generating buzz for the actual content creator. We here at Black Web 2.0 have chosen JS-Kit, but which system you choose depends on exactly what you’re trying to do.

What service handles your comments?

The verdict is still out on whether graffiti is art or public eyesore, but that’s neither here or there. According to Engadget and Jailbreak, there’s an ambitious project underway being conducted by a group of graffiti artists, designers and techies from around the world including members of F.A.T. (Free Art & Technology), GRL (Graffiti Research Lab), OF (openFrameworks) and TEG (The Ebeling Group). Their goal? Create a way for artists that are paralyzed like Tony Quam a.k.a. TEMPTONE to continue to create the art he loves without use of his arms and legs. Quan was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 2003.

Using an open source project, the artists have come up with the Eyewriter. A total DIY deal, Eyewriter is comprised of some cheap sunglasses, copper wire, wire ties, LEDs, and a micro CCD camera connected to software that lets the world see TEMPT’s creativity via computer screen. Don’t let the crazy-looking diagram fool you, the work is sound as proven in video where TEMPTONE uses the device to write his name with his eyes. In addition the talented taggers also created a mobile unit that allows for laser tagging of sorts. As TEMPT draws, the info is set to the mobile unit where it’s projected on to various buildings.

It’s a low-cost gadget that is still in the early stages of development, but the posts on F.A.T. best speak to the potential of the Eyewriter and the hope it can bring:

“It was Easter and there was an actual miracle. Because at the end of the day, it was Tony who helped all of us: he helped us to know hope, showed us what it means to be strong, to be a survivor, to be a graffiti writer, to be alive. It was his father, mother, brother and crew who showed us the meaning of the word family. It was the Ebelings who showed us what it means to have a vision. It was through Tony’s eyes that we finally saw what graffiti was really all about.”

TEMPT + EYEWRITER August 12, 2009 from james powderly on Vimeo.

Rapping about Technology is not a new phenomenon. We covered the YouTube hit, Design Coding by Poetic Profit AKA the SEO Rapper and I’ve mention in the past the NerdCore band Monzy with their cult classic Kill Dash 9. Today we bring to you Dale Chase’s Ode to female coders, Coder Girl. Enjoy!

The Coca-Cola Company’s global marketing manager, Anthony J. Phillips demonstrates and explains Coke’s interactive vending machines, which were developed by Samsung and Sapient. The venders won the Design Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Coca-Cola intends to roll out their interactive vending machines within the next 12 months.

Time may be running short at black targeted search engine Rushmore Drive, amidst a negative earnings call by parent company IAC, which reported a first-quarter net loss of $28.4 million, compared to a profit of $52.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company is now more than ever focused on their goal of making Rushmore Drive the premiere destination for Black people, and Rushmore Drive’s new design might be evidence of how they plan to accomplish it.

The question I am asked the most when showing people Rushmore Drive (RD) for the first time is… “What is it?” Rushmore Drive’s new simplified design attempts to answer that question by drawing attention to their core search business.The site has removed the random badges that once littered the front page and drew eyeballs away from the search bar, and has instead opted for oversized buttons that once rolled over, triggers a JavaScript effect that displays the underlying content. The old badges aren’t completely gone though; instead they have been relocated to the “feature” section, on front page, rendering them almost useless. I discussed this problem with Kevin Mcfall, VP of Product and Content who assured me that these were only the beginning of changes to come to Rushmore Drive’s front page. “The features section will be addressed with the launch of a new navigation bar in the coming weeks.”  The new design also highlights Rushmore Drive’s top searches, a cool feature that was added during the last redesign, but stood unnoticed because of the clutter of the previous design.

I was hoping that Rushmore Drive’s new design would address their news section. It seems to me that there’s still way too much overlap between all of RD’s content sites. Detour, which was once labeled “Our Views” and later changed to “Our News”, is now being re-branded as “Black News” to keep consistent with Rushmore Drive’s mainstream content section “Latest News”, which includes content from leading mainstream publishers including The USA Today, Washington Post, and fellow IAC site the Daily Beast. The Detour section is a collection of mostly opinion driven articles from RD’s contributing writers and content partners including TheRoot.com and TheLoop21.com. This section helps highlight RD’s core business by using Rushmore Drive’s search technology to produce image and video galleries, as well as related searches based on information it gathered from the article. The Daily Drive on the other hand, seems to be Detour’s, less attractive, not so intelligent, annoying step sister. The blog consists of a mixture of embedded YouTube clips and links to articles from Detour, and sites outside of Rushmore Drive. When asked about the difference between the two sites, Mcfall explains, “Detour is more like a magazine. It’s feature centric and the content is more evergreen. The Daily Drive’s content is usually a lot less formal.” All of Rushmore Drive’s content sites still seem quite overwhelming, and with no true value add, I would suggest that RD consider either merging the Daily Drive with Detour, or maybe consider decommissioning it all together.

Rushmore Drive’s focus on offerings outside of their core may have derailed the company slightly, but their new focus on the search business seems to be a giant leap in the right direction. But is it too little too late? Will the new additions buy Rushmore Drive enough time to weather the storm, or will a down ad market seal their fate?

Global Grind has just launched their newly redesigned front page, which seems to now put more focus on their editor’s selections than they do the reader’s choice. Hip-Hop’s Digg-Like news aggregator, which was first sold  as a tool to democratize content by allowing users to submit and vote for their favorite articles, now looks more like your run of the mill magazine style blog. The front page now uses an oversized 350 x 980px flash based scrolling image box to display their “Latest Headlines” . The headlines, from what I can tell, are articles selected by Global Grind’s in house editors, and user’s votes and views seem to have little to no impact on the content that gets chosen to have the most face time. The Top Stories (stories chosen by the people) and the recently introduced Celebrity Blogs, are now pushed down to the center of the page and require you to scroll down to view their titles.

When you click into an article, you will notice a link  that will allow you to share the article quickly and easily through email,  Facebook, Myspace as well as Twitter. You may have also noticed that the new design eliminated the old “Grind Button” and replaced it with a “thumbs up icon”. The new icon, in my opinion, looks more like the normal “recommend” button you might find on most websites, which may take away from the voting features that once made Global Grind so glitzy.  If you click into the actual link to take you to the page, you will notice that the Grind Button is back, but the thumbs up grind button mixture is sure to confuse users new to Global Grind.

The  rest of the Global Grind’s pages including the Celebrity Blogs, Global Grind Network, and Video pages, still carry the old website look. The old design takes you to a completely different set of links which are not accessible from the newly designed front page. I’m not sure if this was a glitch or done on purpose, but it does make navigation tough for new comers.

All in all it seems as if Global Grind’s new shift is completely contrary to their original business. Instead of putting the power in hands of the people, Global Grind has instead opted to put the power in the hands of their editors. I’m not sure if its because of the lack of participation in the voting process (which to me could be enhanced by increasing the size and frequency of the Grind Button), or because of fear of what the people might choose, but regardless the company has taken away from what made them unique and have chosen what makes them just like everyone else.

This year marked a historical year in black history. As celebrations happen in communities throughout the world, there are also things going on online. The three best known Big Box stores (Walmart, Target and Kmart) have found their way online to celebrate black history month. They all took very different approaches and formed interesting partnerships for their initiatives. Below is a short summary of what you will find at their sites.

Since 2005, Walmart has created a microsite every February for Black History Month. Walmart’s OurVoice, this year, focuses on the individual and families.

Walmart is here to help you do just that. Through Walmart´s partnership with Ancestry.com, you will be able to research your family´s origins, learn the importance of family history, begin discovering your heritage through articles, beginner´s instructions and applications, and find the resources to start unraveling your past.

Walmart also created a really nice myspace page, that will serve as a place for current history makers to come together.

Share with others through the OurVoice MySpace community. And find out who will be recognized for making an impact in the community with the Impact Awards, sponsored by Walmart.

Walmart has also partnered Tavis Smiley to promote his traveling black history museum called America I am, that can also be found on twitter @AmericaIAmExhib.

Target’s Dream in Color seems to be a continuation of what they did last year. Instead of focusing on the family, Target has made the choice to focus on female trendsetters and artist.

Target Honors the Accomplishments of African American Women We’re celebrating Black History Month this year by introducing four amazing women who contribute to the proud legacy of African Americans.

There is also a very clear retail slant, as the people in their video heavy site talk about how wonderful it is to shop at target. There are no real community integration aspects, but the video production is great. They also formed partnerships for their initiative, the Smithsonian Museum and Scholastic.

Kmart’s Share the Word took a different approach with their online offering. Rather than focus on Black History, the focus seems to be saving, specifically, women shoppers saving. There is also an instant win contest for a Trip to NYC for a taping of the Steve Harvey morning show, and a quiz (Walmart had one of those too), but apart from that, the site doesn’t really seem to be capturing the essence of Black History. Their partners for this initiative are, the Steve Harvey Morning Show and Mocha Moms.

All in all the sites are doing very different things, and all have different benefits. I like Walmart’s the best simply because they tried to integrate meaningful community interaction, whereas, Target really seemed to take time to create an impactful online experience. As for Kmart, it is nice to see they did something, I just wish it didn’t feel like it was put together at the last minute.

Nokware talked last month about Honey Magazine’s latest incarnation as a web-only publication with a substantial $10 million investment behind it. The site recently went live and is currently in beta.

The new Honey Magazine site design shuns the familiar brown and orange of previous site designs and went for an edgier, darker look with various shades of magenta and selected grunge elements used throughout. Honey’s affiliated social networking components are more prominent on this new site, with login information prominently displayed and integrated in a few places. Commenting on any of the articles or blog entries requires you to register for “The Hive”, the new name of the HiveSpot.com integration. There is the ability to “share” articles, create user profiles, and join different content groups as well.

One major oversight I caught while navigating through the site is that none of it can be syndicated. For blogs particularly, I looked for an RSS feed, but none were available. I also couldn’t discern the benefit of “sharing” the content since a) you had to be a registered member of the site, and b) the articles aren’t set up to link to other social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Delicious, etc.). The footer links were all broken when I visited the site, and the right sidebar modules don’t offer a clear demarcation between categories upon first glance (the latest activity module, for example, lets you toggle between groups and blogs, but it’s hard to tell which is the active content tab). Even the link to give feedback, which is only on one page of the site), doesn’t jump out at you immediately, which could confuse users. The front page also mixes plain text with graphical text which makes the site less dynamic and accessible. There’s also no mobile version like I know in the last Honey Magazine post suggested they should have.

Overall the site is a definite visual departure from the tried and true Honey Magazine style. What do you think?

Sister 2 Sister magazine, a black entertainment and celebrity lifestyle magazine that targets black women, recently relaunched its website using the drupal platform. Drupal is a great out of the box open-source solution for building communities and blog networks, that’s if you have a developer that knows how to customize it.

I was excited to see the new site and explore what it had to offer. So let’s start with the good. One of the first things I noticed was the ease of navigation. I didn’t get lost and it was easy to find my way back to the home page. The color scheme — particularly its bright blue background — was unsettleing at first, but it has grown on me. Overall, the design was a departure from the run-of-the-mill, and I was happy to see that they stayed away from many of the Web 2.0 design trends.

The site also features a nice blend of content. They cover a little bit of everything, with a main focus on celebrities. And they have even customized their own video player. Even though I am an advocate of using services like YouTube so that people can find your content via other means, it still makes sense for the site.

Now here’s the stuff that’s not so good. The fist thing I noticed when I visited the site was that the header image needs to be cleaned up. There is a gray area behind it that really takes away from the overall aesthetic of the page. I think that whoever made the image forgot to turn off the background layer in Photoshop when they saved it. Also, the image is rather large, with a bunch of blank space. With the search bar being in there it isn’t big enough for a 728×90 ad unit so I’m not sure what the justification for it is.

Another thing I noticed was the featured content module with its gray sort nav that is displayed at the top of the page with the title overlays on feature images. It isn’t completely stylized and the red button and the text don’t go with the rest of the site theme, at all. Besides it sort of does more than just overlay the photos — it completely covers about half of the photo. It kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, which isn’t good because it isn’t completely functional. When you click on the story links from the side bar, they don’t go anywhere. They just bring the story up to the main module window. That is one click too many to get to the actual story for me.

The next issue was with the Jamie’s Kitchen section of the site that features video. While I enjoyed the videos, they are all on the same page rather than individual pages with their own comment sections. It just isn’t the most user friendly experience, plus, videos on multiple pages = more page views.

There were a few other small things, like the break where the breadcrumbs are and the color choice there making things get lost, and the lack of ad space, but, overall, I think they are off to a good start. They have a few things that need to be fixed, but once those are done, the site has the potential to be a nice supplement to their print offering. They have lots of good multimedia content and an e-commerce offering, though I’m not sure what they’re going to sell as it is empty right now. But I’ll check back regularly to watch their progress.