Jeffrey Kalmikoff Returns to Spec Debate After SXSW Fight

Elsewhere online another debate continues to rage. This one follows a panel from South by Southwest held a week from yesterday entitled “Is Spec Work Evil?” which featured David Carson, Jeff Howe from Wired and Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester. But most notably, and where the battle began and continues, also on stage was Mike Samson of the “global marketplace for creative services” crowdSpring and Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless, who got into a bit of a sparring match over 1) the former repeatedly comparing their business model to the latter and that 2) crowdSpring is inherently a company that exists to foster spec work and Threadless doesn’t enjoy being associated with them. Kalmikoff replied strongly on stage, day of, but if you’re interested in the topic of spec, which will likely continue to be fought over until the very end of time, it’s well worth reading his full, now cooled headed response on his blog.

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