Much has been said about the recent announcement by Portland Online to “crowdsource” the refresh of their website. Silicon Florist and Pop Art have some interesting discussion going on. While I am not completely up-to-date on the project, I wanted to share some of my thoughts.

At first glance this sort of thing can seem like a great idea. It can be a boon to both young designers just starting their career and small businesses who might not be able to afford the services of a more established designer or agency. This helps designers quickly generate depth in their portfolios and provides a great service to small businesses.

Unfortunately in this case its hardly a good option. Given the size and complexity of a site that generates “over 2 million page views a month” it would take the talent and time of an agency or individual who can bring to bear the necessary experience and talent to complete such a project. This isn’t something that can be decided upon a few sexy proofs. For a successful launch, Portland Online would need to consider UI design, site architecture and hierarchy, the mechanics and logistics of content creation and organization, search engine optimization, and extensive project management.

Some have argued that Portland Online should be more responsible, but I don’t think its fair to wag our fingers at them. Their primary responsibility is to their organization, not to the design community. I think they should be given the benefit of the doubt and given the opportunity understand why a contest would be a bad choice. The design community should approach them with a spirit of open dialogue. We can help educate and inform them of other options and best practices. This is a great opportunity for us to educate others about the design process.

That said, the opportunity for dialogue has to be there for anyone to learn. I hope that the people at Portland Online can see past the communities somewhat knee jerk reaction and identify the well meaning and good intentions of designers. I would hope that they would take it into consideration and appraise wether their approach could be altered to better serve both themselves and the design community at large.

As I understand it, the Portland chapter of the AIGA is holding a meeting today to engage in just such a dialogue. I’m very interested to see what comes of it.