Not to dismiss the idea, but I notice the idea of prizes is very popular with decentralizationism-hipsters like Wired Magazine who claim this empowers the little guy. The reality is that prizes are a way for big companies to get more work for less money. Look at the Netflix prize: For a million dollars, they got research results from many teams, and a million dollars wouldn’t have even funded the work of the team that won. The team that won, probably lost money on it, if you count the hours they put in.
It’s a way to cash out on your reputation. The team that won the Netflix Prize may have ended up with a net gain, if you count the value of having “won the Netflix Prize” on their resume (in terms of both job opportunities and higher salaries afforded), and in order to offer such a reputation boost, Netflix had to have built up a reputation for itself.
Not to dismiss the idea, but I notice the idea of prizes is very popular with decentralizationism-hipsters like Wired Magazine who claim this empowers the little guy. The reality is that prizes are a way for big companies to get more work for less money. Look at the Netflix prize: For a million dollars, they got research results from many teams, and a million dollars wouldn’t have even funded the work of the team that won. The team that won, probably lost money on it, if you count the hours they put in.
It’s a way to cash out on your reputation. The team that won the Netflix Prize may have ended up with a net gain, if you count the value of having “won the Netflix Prize” on their resume (in terms of both job opportunities and higher salaries afforded), and in order to offer such a reputation boost, Netflix had to have built up a reputation for itself.