ReadWriteWeb

Last week, computer book publisher SitePoint relayed a story about recent experiences with Digg that demonstrates that the Digg system is far from perfect. We've written recently on ReadWriteWeb about the decline and fall of quality on Digg, but SitePoint's anecdote demonstrates that sometimes the wisdom of crowds approach is, well, kind of dumb. Now is probably a good time to revisit the rules for harnessing the wisdom of the crowds we published on this blog a year ago.

About a year ago, the so-called "eBay exit," in which startups sold themselves on eBay, got a lot of buzz after an article in USA Today. We picked up the story as well and noted a number of relatively high profile eBay start up exits, the most famous of which is probably the 2006 eBay sale of online calendar startup Kiko for $250,100. But the preferred quick public sale location for startups may no longer be eBay. That title may now belong to the SitePoint Marketplace.

Well-known designer Derek Powazek over the weekend launched his latest project, Pixish, a design marketplace where people can post open calls for submissions for design elements or photography. Designers can then submit work to the assignment, as they're called on the site, and other designers vote for the best. The assignment's originator picks the winner (or winners) and doles out the promised compensation.