Don't trust crowdsourcing

Web 2.0 is abuzz with "crowdsourcing": solving your own problems by seeking out solutions on the internet. But today I experienced an instance where it goes astray.

I sent an old model release to a potential future model. They got back to me telling me it's complex and formal. I read it and gasped in horror. I uploaded an old release, full of legalese and "herebys" and "henceforths" and "whereupons". It might sound impressive at the British Privy Council, but God forbid, I had no idea what half of it meant. I could not cyber-pulp the old form fast enough.

I wrote up the old form based on a swag of other similar releases that were floating around on the internet. Some wise-guys must have thought it clever to use legalese on a release form. Sure, it might be useful for a first-rate fashion institute, but for me, it was just nuts.

For many of us in the image-making industry, we operate solely, so we don't often have a reliable team to fall back on. Which means a lot of times, crowdsourcing is a good way to solve problems. But Google can only give you a suggestion - you have to synthesise it and not take it on face value. I embarrassed myself by doing just that.