Comments on: Open Source Shoes http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/12/open-source-shoes/ Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:14:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: csven http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/12/open-source-shoes/#comment-123 csven Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:53:48 +0000 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/?p=225#comment-123 I tend to fall more along the lines of what Matt posted on the PDF forum thread I started regarding this: http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10034 In particular, this comment of his: "To be honest what annoys me most is this kind of venture being called open source - it isn't, because the company decides what flies and what doesn't, rather than the community." This is a critical distinction in my opinion and is where I see this effort as both a misappropriation of the term and a possible violation of labor laws (e.g. AOL's class-action lawsuit filed by "volunteers"). I tend to fall more along the lines of what Matt posted on the PDF forum thread I started regarding this: http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=10034

In particular, this comment of his: “To be honest what annoys me most is this kind of venture being called open source – it isn’t, because the company decides what flies and what doesn’t, rather than the community.”

This is a critical distinction in my opinion and is where I see this effort as both a misappropriation of the term and a possible violation of labor laws (e.g. AOL’s class-action lawsuit filed by “volunteers”).

]]> By: Tom http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/12/open-source-shoes/#comment-122 Tom Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:15:22 +0000 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/?p=225#comment-122 Interesting. I don't see it as exploitation. Fluevog is capitalizing on the passion their consumers have for their brand and allowing them to participate with it in a fun and easy way. I don't think they should be condemned for developing a way for their fans to get involved, with the slim potential that hey could benefit from it. Fluevog has mentioned that it takes considerable effort and time from their own designers to translate the participants ideas into an actual shoe. It should be a wake up call to any organizations that think open sourcing is the way to connect with a bunch of free labor. So many crowdsourced projects tank because they fail to offer anything to the user in exchange for their participation. Perhaps that was the issue with Nueros', but I don't think it's the case here. Interesting. I don’t see it as exploitation. Fluevog is capitalizing on the passion their consumers have for their brand and allowing them to participate with it in a fun and easy way. I don’t think they should be condemned for developing a way for their fans to get involved, with the slim potential that hey could benefit from it. Fluevog has mentioned that it takes considerable effort and time from their own designers to translate the participants ideas into an actual shoe. It should be a wake up call to any organizations that think open sourcing is the way to connect with a bunch of free labor. So many crowdsourced projects tank because they fail to offer anything to the user in exchange for their participation. Perhaps that was the issue with Nueros’, but I don’t think it’s the case here.

]]> By: csven http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/12/open-source-shoes/#comment-121 csven Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:01:38 +0000 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/?p=225#comment-121 Sorry, but from what I've seen on that site it seems little more than an opportunistic form of crowdsourcing ... with media benefits. It reminds me of Nueros' laughable "bounty" which offered next to nothing in exchange for some very specific code that Nueros needed for its gadget. As far as I'm concerned, both are a way of exploiting enthusiastic people. Sure most everything submitted will be unusable, but if just one sketch is worth a damn and Fluevog run with it, they owe the person a whole pair of shoes. Gee, how generous of them. I suppose giving that person a royalty is ... un-open source-like or something. Sorry, but from what I’ve seen on that site it seems little more than an opportunistic form of crowdsourcing … with media benefits. It reminds me of Nueros’ laughable “bounty” which offered next to nothing in exchange for some very specific code that Nueros needed for its gadget.

As far as I’m concerned, both are a way of exploiting enthusiastic people. Sure most everything submitted will be unusable, but if just one sketch is worth a damn and Fluevog run with it, they owe the person a whole pair of shoes. Gee, how generous of them. I suppose giving that person a royalty is … un-open source-like or something.

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