Australians have been
crowdsourcing since 1901. Fact. From the national flag to the Sydney Opera House, Australians have embraced the idea that a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere. Perhaps its our geographic isolation, our outward export-focused economy, small population or our cultural tendency towards egalitarianism and meritocracy. There's no clear answer but it doesn't matter because the reality is that Australians love crowdsourcing.
Need a custom design now? Start a custom design project now! Save 50% on Posting FeesBig Australian Crowdsourcing Projects
So to kick things off, here are 3 examples of Australian big crowdsourcing projects that show that when it comes to important things like flags and buildings, crowdsourcing can generates loads of creative ideas and a world-class result!
1. The Australian Flag Design Contest
Back in 1901, during Australia's federation, Australia crowdsourced its flag via an international design contest. The flag design contest received over 30,000 flag design submissions - wow! The contest was one of the first design contests ever and remains one of the largest ever held!
Front Cover of the"Review of Reviews For Australia"
announces the new Australian flag. |
2. Sydney Opera House Design Competition
In 1956, the NSW government launched an international design competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney. The competition brief provided broad specifications to attract the best design talent in the world; it did not specify design parameters or set a cost limit. Danish architect Jørn Utzon won and the government commission Utzon as the project's architect. Built between 1957-1973, the Sydney Opera House, is a celebrated global icon of modern architecture.
3. Kevin Rudd Crowdsources 2013 Election T-Shirt
Big brands crowdsourced design and it seems to be catching on in politics. Prime minister Kevin Rudd ('KRudd') election t-shirt. After announcing the t-shirt contest on his website, DesignCrowd launched its own $1,000 t-shirt design contest to help the Minister get a new design. Kevin Rudd selected the a t-shirt design by Studio77 with the slogan of "It's our Ruddy future" from 405 designs submitted by 118 DesignCrowd designers. Okay, okay ... this was shameless plug (#shamelessplug) and not on the same level as the Australian Flag or the Opera House but the Prime Minister was involved so what more do you want?
Need a custom graphic design now? Start a custom design project now! Save 50% on Posting FeesAustralia's Global Crowdsourcing Hub
Few people realise that Australia has, in the last few years, established itself as a global hub for crowdosurcing. Some of the world's largest crowdsourcing platforms are based here in Australia (including, yours turly, DesignCrowd #shamelessplug).
Here are 3 other awesome fast-growing Aussie crowdsourcing platforms that DesignCrowd loves:
1. Kaggle
Australian founder, Anthony Goldbloom started Kaggle - a crowdsourcing for data gurus - in Melbourne before moving it to the heart of tech startup land, San Francisco. In the age of big data, Kaggle’s founders have tapped a big need of companies and governments to leverage the enormous amounts of disparate data they generate and collect everyday. The venture capital community agrees! Kaggle raised $11M from Khosla Ventures.
2. ImageBrief
Founded in Australia, ImageBrief is a photography crowdsourcing platform that is changing how stock photography gets sourced. If find searching for specific types of photography on stock photography sites frustrating, then you'll love ImageBrief's natural language search. Just throw in keywords like "Chinese girl with a red balloon" and you'll find it. If you don't like the photos ImageBiref's photography community has tagged and uploaded, then commission the community to create the image you need by a photography brief contest.
3. FlightFox
Only a year old, Flightfox is changing the travel industry. Founded by Australian Lauren McLeod, amongst others, Flightfox is boon for travellers. Post your desired itinerary and budget, and travel experts will compete to find you the best deal to match or surpass your budget. No more 'internet inertia' from staring at 15 travel booking sites open a the same time. The solution is to outsource your travel and have 10 or 20 experts working to find you the best deal. Flightfox's model is showing a lot of promise and the team just got accepted into Y-Combinator (prestigious US-based startup accelerator program).
Best of the rest ...
Other Aussie crowdsourcing services growing fast (and worth checking out) include
Airtasker (crowdsourcing your life) and
Pozible (crowdfunding creative projects). Crowdfunding is technically a form of crowdsourcing where the crowd of donors pledge real money towards a financial goal that needs to be met within a set timeframe. Pozible helps art and film makers, and another Aussie crowdfunding platform
Start Some Good funds social innovation projects.
In summary ... Australia Loves Crowdsourcing
Australians have been crowdsourcing since 1901! From our national flag to our global crowdsourcing hub to the mass popularity of TV shows like The Voice (crowdsourcing entertainment), Aussies have embraced crowdsourcing. What do you think Australia should crowdsource next? Let us know your top ideas in the comments below.
TV show - The Voice - is a successful example of
crowdsourcing entertainmentLooking for custom graphic designer to create a new logo or business card design?Start a custom design project now! Save 50% on Posting Fees
Want more?
Check out our new logo maker on BrandCrowd:
Australian Logo Designs
Flag Logo Maker
Written by Jo Sabin on Thursday, August 1, 2013
Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.
