Outsourcing Sites: Threat or Opportunity?
November 24th, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 5 CommentsTweet This
We’ve looked at freelance outsourcing and crowdsourcing sites in the past – places like 99 Designs for graphics work or Elance for programming and other fields. Generally speaking, it seems that most web workers in our audience view these sites as a threat, encouraging rate cutting and spec work (depending on the site).
But it seems unlikely that the trend of global outsourcing is going to go away any time soon, or that sites which enable it will go out of business. As a result, it’s probably smart for web workers to learn what’s out there, and to figure out how to deal with it. A pair of recent columns from Dan Appleman survey the programming side of this trend. Appleman’s conclusion flies in the face of the accepted wisdom: though he sees the greatest benefit to businesses, he adds “but U.S. workers who are smart, professional and keep their eyes open can find good opportunities as well.”
Tags: coding, freelancers, outsourcing
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