Expanding the potential talent pool for your company or idea was one of the great failed promises of the internet era. Sure, some co-working and gig economy services do what they say on the tin, but as many of us have discovered, being able to cast your net wide for professional services means you’ll attract everyone – not just the pros you’re hoping for but armies of dodgy hobbyists and content sweatshops.
The low barrier of entry of online job sourcing platforms can impose an ironically high barrier to seamless operation because of differences in language and business culture. To put it bluntly, the results can be crap.
Providers like Guru, Mechanic Turk or Task Rabbit are fine for more straightforward and mundane business processes (although the rise of Gen AI is threatening their markets), but design projects that call for understanding, experience and creativity remain mostly out of the reach of the democratised online gig economy.
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