Francis

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

It is true that many jobs posted to Mechanical Turk allow workers from all around the world and from poorer countries like for example Bangladesh.

To do additional work and have the opportunity to earn some money that they wouldn’t have been able to earn otherwise.

Is the tedious work that you able to do on Mechanical Turk for little amount of money a blessing in disguised?

What seems to us as ridiculous payments could be acceptable money in other countries, there are many people from for example India doing tasks on Mechanical Turk with enthusiasm.

Does this really mean that they liked the job or does it only mean that they are forced to do the job and do not see any alternative?

Seasonal off and on opportunities to work without commitment are a very positive aspect from outsourcing to Mechanical Turk

by Francis
(July 16, 2012)

Let’s assume that you have a period without work which is fairly short, perhaps a week. You don’t have the time or don’t want to find an extra job for that short. Then perhaps working from home on Mechanical Turk is just the thing you need.

Of course it will be very hard work to do. For example if you do transcription. But if you work focused and hard for one week, you might make a good amount of money. Perhaps even a few hundred dollars.

And if your business picks up again, you will just quit working on Mechanical Turk and go back to your own job. The flexibility that lies in Mechanical Turk is probably one of the reasons why people who do this sort of work online don’t switch over to more regular freelancing jobs.

There is not so much of a commitment. So perhaps this freedom of doing work or not doing work is one of the positive aspects of this service.

Outsourcing changes the way we think about work

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

The concept of outsourcing – which was invented not much more than twenty years ago – is a huge game changer to the way we think about work.

As compared to the traditional work with all sorts of social benefits, freelancing and doing mini jobs or micro tasks online might seem dangerously different. But perhaps this is the way of the future.

Perhaps work will get more and more flexible, short term and changing.

Where will you be when the future comes?

Will you be a child of the past and try to stay within the same working model that has worked in the past?
Or will you adapt the changes of the future?

I think that outsourcing, doing micro tasks and online freelancing will actually increase the more we go into the future.

What do you think?

Comments for Outsourcing changes the way we think about work

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

If there are too many rules and too many restrictions about minimum wages, isn’t there a danger that some new projects and new jobs will simply never come out and therefore some people will stay unemployed?

—

Personally, if outsourcing was not as cheap as it is in some cases, I would have never started with it. Without a high income a private person could never do outsourcing. But since outsourcing – independent if it is on Mechanical Turk, oDesk or anywhere – is like it is…

I feel that most private persons in countries like the US or Europe would easily be able to outsource parts of their online work to workers from poor countries. And I think this would be the best form of outsourcing there could be.

People from the more advanced countries will have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures and working with them. They will profit from having the projects be completed faster and for an adequate amount of money.

And people from the less developed countries would have an opportunity to work for good money, from their perspective, on jobs probably not as bad as other jobs that might be available. Or they might have an opportunity to work if there are no jobs available at all.

Personally, I really think that “private outsourcing”, as I call it, from a private person to another private person, is the way to go if you really want to stay on the good side of business ethics.

The micro tasks on the Turk might increase mass exploitation of workers

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

Here is an interesting theory:

“What if an institution like Mechanical Turk leads to more and more huge work centers with bad ventilation that only have the computers and connectivity and employ big number of workers from very poor countries?

And what if, in exchange of the internet connection and the opportunity to work, they keep large cuts of the wages?”

Normally, you need your own account to be paid for yourself. It would be interesting to find out if for the very same account of Mechanical Turk several people can log in and work. If that is indeed the case, then the danger from such an extreme scenario would be high.

If, on the other hand, the payment system is secured and personalized, then the question of the large cut of wages for exchange of using the computers is much more open again.

The question is

“Is a scenario like this realistic?”

Is the word “Turkers” a disrespectful name for workers on amazon Mechanical Turk?

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

If I wouldn’t have read about it I would have never thought to think of this word as disrespectful. It is true of course that people from Turkey are called “Turks” but the Mechanical Turk is a historic machine. It is like an expression of speech.

And only because on Mechanical Turk there are micro tasks which often are very simple, this does not mean in any way that it is a criticism against people from Turkey.

In my personal opinion, if you are offended by the word “Turk” or “Turker” this rather tells a lot about how you think.

Don’t you think?

Read what how my virtual assistant sees all this matter:

OK, it was quite surprising for me if the word “Turker” was derived from a Turk (people from Turkey) and it seems to be a little illogic that amazon easily associated all its workers as “Turks” and apparently this service is limited to only residents of the US.

I could not hold my curiosity too long and I researched for Turkers via internet. You know what I have found?

Read it yourself!

“The title comes from Wolfgang von Kempelen’s mechanical “Turk” in the 1700s, who was a master chess player dressed up as a wooden mannequin. Defeated many competitors throughout Europe, including Napoleon, the Turk usually sat inside a wooden cabinet wearing a robe and turban. Opening the door to reveal gears and springs inside, Kempelen fooled people into believing this was a mechanical device with artificial intelligence.”

Source: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/turker

Still I was not satisfied with my research and want to cross check and authenticate my results by doing another research. This time I found a pretty authentic source which has the same elaboration of the “Turk”.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Mechanical_Turk
Of course you can’t get an authentic source like Wikipedia to verify your results.

Comments for Is the word “Turkers” a disrespectful name for workers on amazon Mechanical Turk?

People are uselessly wasting the time for pennies when they could do much better stuff

by Francis
(July 13,2012)

I was surprised to read this “argument” against Mechanical Turk.

People waste their time on the internet all the time.

Have you tried measuring your productivity?

I have!

I actually running a program in the background of my computer to measure my productivity and I can see which websites distract me.

Believe me, it’s not a pretty sight 😉

If anyone wants to get distracted and make some dollars on the site, I do not see how I would be in the right position to criticize them.

It is not like I come home from work and when I am really tired, say:

“Now I should get Productive. Now I should really work”

No. In general, people slump into the couch and turn on the TV.

Talk about being productive.

If being unproductive is the only thing Mechanical Turk has a problem with, then there really isn’t much of an issue.

Isn’t there?

by Francis
(July 13, 2012)

A specific comment made me think really hard about outsourcing again. As you know I think you should respect some ethics in business when you do outsourcing.

There are three points of criticism against hard work like transcription on Mechanical Turk to very low prices, that had a point. At least partially.

1. Say that they are children working on mechanical Turk.

For example, on the account of their parents. That would go against child labor laws. Wouldn’t it?

I personally don’t know if there is any possibility to prevent that. This could be a real problem for all online work because no one will be there to check on who is sitting behind your computer and clicking for money.

2. There are minimum wage laws. Those laws were created specifically because people are willing to work for ridiculously low amounts of money.

I am aware that a person in India with a low wage gets less money than the people working for a minimum wage in a European or US country.

So is this unethical?

It’s a hard question.

People have different costs of living in different countries and although there is globalization everywhere, people are not in the same living conditions everywhere.

So my take on this is to:

1. find out what the living conditions the country you outsource to are
2. and then limit yourself to how far you will go down with the prices.

As an employer on Mechanical Turk, this is very much within your power and if you are a worker on Mechanical Turk, look and choose which sort of work you want to do.

Note that it is very much possible to limit jobs on Mechanical Turk to workers from the US only. There the risk is very low that someone will work for pennies an hour.

And in general, for example for writing HITs, I would recommend you do that. You will get probably the best results regarding the quality of the English language.

What about health dangers and safety laws when doing tedious computer work for very small amount of money?

It is true that you can hurt your hand or your eyes and also your back by the way, if you are sitting in front of the computer and do repetitive tasks without taking a break. It is also true that the Mechanical Turk system does nothing to prevent this.

Should there be a protection mechanism there or are we being over protective?

Is this argument just for the sake of discussion or is it a real issue that should be addressed?

Comments for There has to be laws against this sort of modern slavery on Mechanical Turk