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On the net I can see an exact count of views, not to mention the instant feedback of comments and below the line discussion! That's one reason advertising in traditional media is being cut back in favour of spending online.
There's still a place for authority though, in whatever media - Twitter might break news but for a lot of people it's not real until they've seen it on the BBC :)"
Think about call centres based in India: the people who work there are paid far, far less than their equivalent in the UK or US, by a ratio of about 10:1.
It's easy to see it as exploitation because they're not being paid what we'd call a good wage, but in India there's great competition to work in a call centre because it's considered a well-paid job.
is that exploitation? "
There's a great and wise saying on the internet: "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." It was really about things like Facebook, but it's obliquely relevant here as well.
Do you think NowGamer's offer of a "free blog" was out of the goodness of their hearts? And do you think VentureBeat don't want to make any mone"
I’ve never seen 99Designs before, thanks for that.
That actually gives me an interesting view on the situation from the other side of the amateur/professional divide: I’ve worked in the digital creative industry for years now, and am lucky enough to have a portfolio and a full-time job.
As someone who wants to get into professional writing I think sites like Bitmob are great, for the audience and experience of writing. I’m happy to write and post here because I enjoy both the process of writing and the feedback from comments; it seems like a great way to dip a toe into the industry.
But as someone established in the creative industry, 99Designs actually makes me feel a bit sick. Many of the people I know in the industry had to spend months doing unpaid placements to break in, myself included, and it was shit. Now I’m passionately against unpaid placements; if I ever gave someone work experience or an internship then I’d pay them a fair wage for it.
99Designs seems to take the idea of unpaid placements to a whole new level though – they’ve actually made a business model out of it! Aspiring designers need exposure and experience, and 99Designs exploits those needs to make money in an incredibly cynical way.
With Workfare, the unemployed end up doing a fair day’s work but get nothing back, while their labour actually generates money for someone else. I think Workfare, 99Designs, unpaid placements and Bitmob are all points on a spectrum, but where you draw the line between valuable experience and exploitation is highly dependent on where you are in your career.
When you’re established it’s easy to forget how important exposure seems to someone just starting out – but then sometimes succeeding is less about getting exposure and more about acting like a professional and asking to see the money. I’ve got one foot on each side of the gap. I’ll probably keep writing here and staying the hell away from sites like 99Designs – but it’s certainly given me something to think about."
I think one of the most powerful game mechanics in Amnesia is the way it stops you wanting to even stop and look at the enemies, as it damages your sanity metre. You can probably play through most of the game without actually seeing any monsters, which is pretty clever way round the problem!"
