More on Crowdsourcing and the Virtual Workplace

I twittered recently about fairsoftware.net - a really neat concept in crowdsourcing where you can find people to team up with for software projects. Shortly after, a new twitter buddy dexin posted this link - How the Virtual Workforce is Changing Everything. It's a good article talking about how telecommuting and outsourcing has morphed into crowdsourcing, also referred to as the Virtual Workplace. From the article:

Companies should not view this new work style [crowdsourcing] as a cost-saving, short-term measure, as there are start-up costs involved.

A big distinguishing factor of this model is that it is a call for work. Many people will reply. Many of them may have a full time job doing other things.

"I don't know if it will ever become the replacement for an employer and an employee in the traditional sense -- but this work style is now a part of the ecosystem. It's sort of a third way," he [Jeff Howe, contributing editor for Wired Magazine] said. 

Neat. I like how it warns companies not to see it as a short term plan but also lets them know that this, to some extent, is here whether we like it or not.