Can Your Job Be Crowd-Sourced?
First other countries were taking manufacturing jobs, then computers began replacing white-collar jobs; now could volunteers be the reason you're unemployed? Don't laugh, it's possible. LinkedIn recently asked translators who use its website if they'd be interested in translating pages into other languages for the site's international audience. The survey it sent the translators listed possible compensation, but none of the choices were monetary. LinkedIn's response when the translators were outraged was essentially "there's someone out there who will do this just for the prestige, just like people edit Wikipedia for free." Still think there's not a group of people out there willing to do your job for free?
Journalists have known this is coming for years; from iReporters on CNN to Wikipedia to bloggers to the demise of investigative bureaus, there are fewer and fewer professionals reporting the news. Can the same thing happen to marketers or sales people? Sure; you don't exactly need a PhD to do either, so why can't companies put their collateral online and let a bunch of crowd-sourcers come up with an ad campaign? Certainly there are implications like brand integrity, but similar integrity issues didn't stop media companies from trusting anonymous amateurs.
I don't know what the implications will be if other companies adopt LinkedIn's attitude toward paying for professional services. Do you think this is an isolated case, or will budget cuts and emphasis on growth cause more companies to look at crowd-sourcing as a viable business practice?
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