Freesourcing
In Productivity by Skellie
Photo by metaphors
When doing keyword research for my muse, I was stunned by the amount of searchers looking for ‘free outsourcing’, as if there were ranks of people hanging out online, just waiting to perform menial tasks for fun!
This did get me thinking, though. How would free outsourcing work? How could a free outsourcing system be built?
If we assume a conservative definition of free, then free outsourcing would involve outsourcing at no monetary cost (rather than getting something for nothing). Considering a lack of funds is the key reason why individuals and businesses might not outsource, no cost outsourcing could be very useful.
My freesourcing concept doesn’t involve exploitation. Instead, it would involve trading value for value.
It hinges on one question: what do you need and what can you give?
Let’s say you need a new logo for your website. You want something custom designed by a talented freelancer. You could start by picking a freelancer you like and asking: “What could I do to get you to do _______ for free?” If their normal rate for a logo design is $250, you can generally assume that their answer will be equivalent to or above $250 of value to them, if they provide an answer at all. Not everyone will have particular needs and not everyone will be open to the idea.
You can increase your chances of uptake by listing your skills and what you can offer. Let’s say that I want to use this new logo on my SEO blog. Perhaps I can offer a free SEO consultation for the designer’s portfolio, to the value of $250? Maybe I can refer them to a friend I know who needs a logo designed for her company and is willing to pay big bucks? Perhaps I can help one of his portfolio blog posts reach the front page of Digg?
As you can see, my concept of freesourcing relies on an equal exchange of favors utilizing time or unique skills. Another name for it might be favesourcing, and its successful operation hinges on finding someone with a skill you need and being able to provide them with something worthwhile in return.
I can see it operating in a few ways:
Skilled work exchanged for time-consuming work. For example: a two-hour marketing consultation valued at $500 exchanged for one massive linkbait article.
Skilled work exchanged for a different kind of skilled work. For example: ghost writing an eBook report in exchange for a website redesign.
Time consuming work exchanged for time consuming work probably wouldn’t work, unless your skills or tools allow you to complete a certain type of (usually) time consuming work very quickly.
Wait a second — outsourcing is supposed to save time!
Outsourcing actually means getting a third party to work for you, and it can save time or money. I think freesourcing has the potential to do both.
It allows you to get something for free by offering your skills and resources in exchange.
It can also help you to save time by offering skilled, high-value work in exchange for menial tasks. It works as long as the task you’re performing takes less time than the work you’re looking to outsource in exchange.
How to start freesourcing
Think of all the things you would do to boost your business/online income efforts if you had more funds — things you may never have allowed yourself to think about before.
Search for people who can give you one of these things and ask them: what would it take for you to do _________ for free? Ankesh Kothari was able to ask this question of a designer and get a free website design in return for the unique favor he was able to provide.
List your skills and resources and some example services you might be able to provide in return. Leave your offer open so the person you’re approaching can also propose their own repayment ideas.
Expect resistance
Not everyone will want something you can provide them. Freesourcing is an untraditional idea and some of those you ask won’t be open to accepting anything other than money for their work. And that’s completely fine, and totally within the spirit of freesourcing: it’s about both parties feeling like they have attained something of equal value. If you want something badly but can’t afford it or don’t have the time, keep trying until you find someone who sees value in what you have to offer them.
A likely objection: “I don’t believe I have skills or resources to compensate someone for what I need. I don’t think anyone will be interested in what I have to offer.”
I have two answers to that objection:
If you can’t return someone’s favor with skills or resources, you may be able to return it with time. In fact, the time to do a simple task may be all someone could ask for. Whether it’s moderating comments, researching articles, gathering links or summarizing news, certain favors may have only one requirement to fulfil: a bit of time.
My second answer is this: never presume you know what is valuable to another person. You won’t know until you ask.
- Think about your professional skills.
- Think about your hobbies.
- Think about your areas of interest.
- Think about areas you have been educated in.
- Think about how you use your time.
Each one of those parts of a whole has the potential to be insanely valuable to someone.
Why it’s important
I think the freesourcing idea has very real potential. It could allow both parties to use their skills or time to gain something they may always have wanted but could never afford.
How it could work
On an individual scale, freesourcing is simple — you contact someone and ask what you could do for someone in return for their time/skill.
It’s a concept that I think would flourish on a grander scale, though. I can easily imagine a Freesourcing forum, where users make threads based on what they want and what they can offer in return. If anyone sees an idea in this (or even a Muse idea) feel free to use it any way you like.
Final thoughts
One of the coolest things about the web is the potential to collaborate with individuals who have unique and needed skills you would not have encountered in your day-to-day life. I think the freesourcing idea takes this potential for collaboration a step further.
If you want to ask/offer, you’re welcome to start in the comments section here!
March 18th, 2008
Um… This isn’t anything new. It’s called barter, which has long been a practice in use that is completely traditional and commonly used to exchange products or services of like value.
We use the barter system all the time. We have skills people want, other people have skills we want. Exchange becomes worthy at opportune moments.
On the other hand, my bill collectors don’t barter. I still have to earn money to feed my kids and be financially healthy. So the barter system (or what you’d like to recoin “freesourcing”) doesn’t work that much in today’s society.
Also, you still have to declare barter in most countries for income tax purposes. You end up paying money on an exchange of services or goods. And that takes dollars, which… uh… you can’t barter for.
March 18th, 2008
I think thats a great idea. It would certainly help new designers build up their business or side projects faster. This whole “barter” system also help you build up a network of other professionals that you can call upon if you need them for a particular project.
The only drawback about this system is worrying about others taking advantage of the “free” part. I think that it cant hurt to have a simple contract draw up for this type of work even though its free.
March 18th, 2008
Tradia is an interesting barter network. I had some bad luck with them, but a lot of people really like it. I did get one really, really good trade out of them, but the rest of it was just a pain in the neck.
March 18th, 2008
I think what distinguishes “freesourcing” from “barter” is what Skellie pointed out in her last paragraph — “the potential to collaborate with individuals who have unique and needed skills you would not have encountered in your day-to-day life”.
What has thrilled me in the past 5 months of blogging is how willing most bloggers are to share their skills and knowledge — usually without recompense. However, I would love to offer a customized book club kit or book club resource list to anyone who would help me with a logo or with web design!
I think, in a sense, Skellie is recommending a new level of teaching and sharing, rather than the old “get as much as you can for as little as possible” idea of bartering. The tax angle is interesting, though. Can’t imagine trying to support my family with freesourcing (which Skellie didn’t seem to be recommending), but I think the exponential possiblities of the web make a new idea of bartering interesting.
Great post!
March 18th, 2008
There are several websites that facilitate this type of exchange. You might check out barter.net or itex.com.
March 18th, 2008
Bartering is a lost art…
And I’m glad to let it be lost. I haven’t the tongue for it. I’d rather pay my money and get my product.
I hate dickering about car prices, too.
Not saying it can’t work, just saying that its not for everyone.
March 18th, 2008
While ‘bartering’ can mean outsourcing, I usually think of it more in terms of a forced situation where there would be consequences if you don’t accept the offer. With ‘outsourcing’ becoming linked with ‘free’ it’s like it gives you more of a ‘free’ choice of which services/goods that you would like to attain.
I agree with Kristen on the distinguishing factor being that you have a wider source of skills in the pool that you have access to because of internet connectivity.
I guess I think of ‘barter’ as being among close friends and ‘free outsourcing’ amongst whomever you search out and choose to be your third party.
I remember several times when I was younger that I would blackmail my sister asking her not to tell mom that I had done something that I wasn’t supposed to do. I used candy for my barter.
I guess that’s how I think of barter differently than free outsourcing. Then again, It’s just one of the weird little quirks my mind has, trying to differentiate between something that’s almost the same!
I LOVE the pic at the top Skellie!
March 18th, 2008
Maybe I’m missing something, but I agree with James about this just being barter. Whether or not you’re trading ‘real’ value or claim it on your taxes, it’s still technically a barter.
I could only imagine someone offering to perform a service “for free” in exchange for providing a reference or marketing purposes. Sharing knowledge freely - I’d just call that being a nice person and investing in goodwill.
There are ‘barter exchange’ or ‘corporate barter’ services on the web. They use ‘trade credits’ or ‘barter bucks’ to make easier to exchange services when two parties cannot match their wants and needs but still wish to use barter. The Wikipedia entry for barter explains it more succinctly than I can.
March 18th, 2008
Interesting concept, Skellie. It relies on a lot of trust, but thankfully there are some decent people around.
March 18th, 2008
It a very interesting idea to barter skills. It might work well where the skills are all in one basket, so to speak. One such basket might be webdesign, blogging, writing, research. I think it might be more difficult if the skills are divergent. In my case I’m a writer, a Zen master, and a psychotherapist.
Anyone out there want to make me a website for free in return for some counseling or meditation sessions?? No jostling - please form an orderly queue
March 18th, 2008
Beautiful post with perspective!
I’ve always been a fan of the term “tradesies,” but “freesourcing” is good too.
In the information age, I like the ability to trade value with a human anywhere in the world. I think a great example of this is Second Life where you can invoke a human for live help and collaborate in world. What I think they did well is, it’s real-time, it’s a global resource pool, and they reduced friction around things (for example, exchanging Lindens.)
About six months before Amazon released its mechanical turk, I was pushing an idea for a short-burst work platform, where I wanted to link up people online, similar to live help in Second Life, to exchange information services. I had a bunch of scenarios, but some colleages really liked the following:
- need help writing your report — invoke a human
- need help creating your presentation — invoke a human
- need help writing some code — invoke a human
On the personal side, a scenario I often used was, what if I could link up my niece to the world’s best math tutor around the world, that happens to have a few spare hours weekends? What if I wanted to get mentored by the world’s best imagineer that lives in Italy, and I could help them write a book? … etc.
It’s a super interesting world right now. There’s a mismatch between available jobs and available resources. It’s a global market. We’re in the info age, but still structured like the industrial age.
Granted you can do freesourcing today behind the scenes, painfully in emails, … etc. What if instead, you could easily browse a world-wide catalog of people looking to swap their knowledge and skills in “X”, for somebody’s knowledge and skills in “Y”. I think swapping knowledge and services works great in today’s info age, wheras bartering for physical goods in the past, had more friction and limitations (such as time/space.) I continue to fill my head with information and knowledge because I know it’s the new currency.
I also know there’s some sites popping up trying to solve this issue, so there’s a good chance that by next year, you won’t need a virtual assistant — you’ll just freesource your day job.
March 18th, 2008
@ Jason - That’s called a bribe. It’s a completely different process.
Honestly? I find the comments and the concept frighteningly chilling. This is a blog about “Work online. Work anywhere. Live Free.”
It’s not about “Work online. Work anywhere. Work Free. And have a damned good backup plan because barter isn’t going to pay the bills.”
I also find it interesting that it appears no web worker is chiming up to say, “YEAH! I want a piece of that! I want to work for free!” Oh, right. Not free. For barter. Something like, “Write a post in exchange for traffic!” Joy.
A friend of mine asked an interesting question, too. “Wasn’t Skellie the one that said we should never work for less than $50 for 500 words?”
Ayup. She had a change of mind, it seems.
March 19th, 2008
@James Chartrand - I know that’s what it’s called and I understand the process fully. I just said I think of bartering that way. In other words…when I hear that word that’s what I think of. My mind is just weird like that sorry! LOL!
I really don’t think she had a change of mind. I think that you are just taking it that way.
She said, “As you can see, my concept of freesourcing relies on an equal exchange of favors utilizing time or unique skills.”
Notice the word “equal.”
I believe she did say that we should never work for less than $50 per 500 words. But the fact of reality is, if something is worth $50 dollars to you then it’s worth $50 dollars to you. Only you can decide if you would rather take their services in return for yours or take their money which can be spent freely on anything you wish.
March 19th, 2008
Not a bad idea - thanks for posting this…, it is more like collaboration as one could be ranked too for the quality too. Gonna check out the barter and itex site! I currently use scriptlance alot and been pretty happy - but heck, would exchange services gladly too! Thanks, Maria Gudelis
March 19th, 2008
There’s nothing new here. As others have pointed out — and I came here to say — this is barter, and giving it a daft (sorry, but it is) buzzword name doesn’t change that. And traditional barter does give access to a wider network, whether in barter clubs where you’d meet extra people or just through the old-fashioned method of “putting the word out.”
If the internet is a very wide-reaching club, then starting barter might be as simple as putting up a wish-list page and letting people know what you want and what you have to offer in return.