WorkersoftheWeb
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Workers of the Web
Research into design-related labor forms particularly addressing issues of precariousness, spec. jobbing, and working conditions of the web.
Chapter I) The rise of the global day-laborer and how the crowd was dispersed
99designs - crowdsourcing design
99designs is a crowdsourcing design-service where +200000 designers from around the world freely compete in client-based design contests. There's a wide variety of competitions offered ranging from Logos, illustration, web- and app-design, merchendice, packaging and others. Competitors to 99design offer the same service.
Structure of competition
One contest with many peers competing against each other. Most contests and design-entries are publicly visible, and competition and plagerism are immanent, and deeply rooted in the system.
http://99designs.com/logo-business-card-design/contests/create-next-logo-business-card-octivi-228991
Comrades of the screen! Join forces
Classic, dreamy, utopic workers-union-approach: gather against the oppressors!
VIDEO of spamming
The rise of the global day-laborer and how the crowd was dispersed
Depending on how a technology is wielded the outcome can be dramatically different. In the case of 99designs the essential technology of communication, the web, does not gather the crowd in the struggle against the oppressors. Rather it thrives on the physical and geopolitical separation amongst the participating designers.
The crowd has been dispersed. Individuals engage in sporadic fights to conquer the glorified bounty (usually 299$) - the winner takes it all. A new hybrid of day-laborers emerges, eager peers, ready for instant action, production. Used on demand, paid occasionally.
Chapter II) Pleasures of Performing
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