Last week’s class lecture on crowdsourcing and open source software offered good insight to how these platforms work and their rise in popularity. Two great examples that we examined in class were Wikipedia and Threadless. I had heard about threadless before and we have also talked about it in my branding class. I think it’s really cool that people can display their own designs, that people have the option of voting for their favorite design and that you can also purchase your favorite t-shirts. The top selling t-shirt designs were the ones with the most votes and it’s the threadless community that drives these t-shirt sales.
I did some exploring this week to see if i could find some other crowdsourcing networks that have strong communities and where the communities votes can turn your design into a top seller! On Minted, a recently launched site that sells stationary and paper products, allows designers to submit designs where they are voted on. The top designs get to become part of the inventory, similar to the way threadless works. Another interesting site is Designbyhumans, which is also another t-shirt site where people submit their designs and the community votes on their favorites. It’s also a community that discusses art and Design by Humans holds contests to find the best t-shirt design in exchange for a cash prize.
Online Merch Table launched on Nimbit, is a place where you can sell your songs and merchandise such as t-shirts, hats and posters. You can also create a bio page for fans to find out more about you and your fans can sign up for your newsletter. At spreadshirt, users set up online shops to sell t-shirts, hats, and mugs. Users can also browse by topics such as humor and holidays or by products such as bags, caps and aprons. Users can also leave feedback on products they like.
There are many sites out there (i just mentioned a few!) that encompass the elements of crowdsourcing and it’s really interesting to see how these interactive communities work and how they have the ability to essentially change someones life by making their design into a top selling t-shirt or stationary paper. There are also many open source applications out there that are pretty cool.
