[matthiaswh]

Spec work controversy aside, they make a statement at the end I find ironic:

  The one big drawback is that it is a time-consuming endeavor, and to manage a good contest takes a decent amount of planning and focus.

I've worked through redesigns with many clients, and the time they spent on running this contest is on the low end. Plus, they did more work than they really needed to by emailing contributors and coding it themselves. If they want to take the easy way out (crowdsourcing) then they may as well go all the way.

Managing a "good contest" takes anything but a decent amount of planning and focus, and is not time consuming.

[_trogdor]

How could it ever be? In order to run a really top-notch contest, they would have to spend a lot of time and effort on each part of it, including the design. And how will they find somebody to design their contest for them?