MicrostockGroup

"they get some money, bragging rights, they get a credit and that’s the value they get"

I'm going to contact him and ask if he'll design me a new website and marketing campaign, in return I'll throw him a couple of dollars but the main appeal will obviously be the credit and bragging rights he'll get.

'custom stock shoots' sites have failed before.  This guy is no different, especially when you're trying to promote 'professional' work and all you have is weekend snappers.

"Ireland has produced world-class companies that have exploited the potential of supplying images online before."

Boy, he nailed it there.  "Ethical crowdsourcing".

Must admit I can't see how this is any different to the "Request New Content" forum on IS, other than it being much more complicated and not being addressed to a stock-shooting fraternity who understand the technical requirements, etc.

On the IS forum there is a magazine that every month gives out 3 recipes and requests vertical and horizontal shots of each. The 'lucky winner' gets to sell ... er, two images for their trouble. Oh, nearly forgot, they also get a 'credit' and a copy of the magazine too. Invariably the recipes are in tiny niche subjects which are unlikely to get many further sales (apart from the fact that the recipes themselves have all been done to death anyway). It always amazes me how many contributors beaver away in response to the request.

Here's one of the posts. Never in the field of stock photography have so many mushrooms been stuffed (with macadamia) by so many for so few potential sales. Makes me wonder who is getting the greater stuffing __ the mushrooms or the participants?

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=260401&page=1

I liked the idea of ethical crowdsourcing, but honestly don't see how this idea could possibly end up being a successful business. At 30K competitions a year, they'd have to sell the photos for a lot - or charge the camera clubs a ton for these competitions in the cloud  - to make any money.

Even if you forget the thought that camera clubs will deliver lovely black & whites to hang on a wall vs. the type of stock that gets bought, even if you don't worry about model releases, IP and other legal issues, even if you ignore the issue of not many camera clubs in some of the locations that sell a lot of stock, aren't the club members going to lose interest if one or two of the members always make the sale (the sjlocke of Celbridge Camera Club)?

I think that's the spin they're giving to the fact that they're not handing out money. Money is dirty and 'unethical' you see. This is confirmed by Kelly Thompson of Istockphoto who recently told us we don't really come to his website for it.

It would appear that the first competition is up & running too;

http://www.picturk.com/?p=1

Bizarrely the 'Leader Board' is currently topped by a Mr Joris Vreeke, who has 3 votes, and who also happens to be one of the three judges. Just as well they're so very 'ethical' otherwise we might think something funny was going on.

You know, if I wanted to harness the mighty power of the interweb to do some "ethical crowd-sourcing", I probably wouldn't choose a little Irish camera shop as the only place that prize vouchers could be exchanged.

According to the Siliconrepublic report Geraghty "... spent 3 months developing his idea for Picturk". Yeah right.

Probably was "Don't quit your day job...".

Huh? You are comparing this obviously hopeless (and way behind the time) enterprise with the invention of flight, etc? Oh I see.

I'm curious who is the one "cowering in anonymity" when we all know (and respect!) Sean but you have no website, portfolio links or anything else to identify YOU? Something about a pot and a kettle comes to mind, but in this case the kettle isn't even black!

I know Sean is an iStock exclusive, in fact I would say he is the iStock exclusive.

I also know who Gostwyck is, there is no real anonymity on the web ...

Thank you for the link and spotting the bug. Joris name was there in error and has been removed from the leader board.
Picturk