Hello,

I just found out yesterday about Amazon's Mechanical Turk Service and thought it might be a cool thing to pass some time and get paid for it.

But after reading their front page for the service (in German), I had some questions first:

The front page was clearly directed at the people who want to use the service to get their work done (the contractor) and not at the people doing the jobs (the worker) and it included the statement (roughly translated): "If you don't like how the job was done, you simply don't pay the worker".

Now my first question would be: How (if at all) does Amazon make sure that the contractor doesn't simply state "Well, the job wasn't done right" and doesn't pay and then actually use the work that the worker has done anyways, for free? I mean, the contractor has to SEE the work in order for him to evaluate if it was done correctly, so when he can SEE the work, he could simply download or screenshot or memorize it and use it totally free, right?

The text on the front page really sounded like it would be very easy for the contractor to have the worker do some work and then don't pay (and use the work that was done or not, in any case the worker has worked some time and got nothing).

Also, they mentioned that a task that is advertised at MTurk can be done by more than one worker at a time... how does that work out? I mean if a few worker all do the same job (say, edit 200 images), who exactly gets paid for the work done? The worker who did it best? The worker who completed the job first? What if I spend a few hours editing a few 100 images, just to be told at cashout time that someone else finished the same work a few minutes earlier or a little better? I would spent my time on nothing, right?

Does anyone know how these things are handled at MTurk?

Thank you all in advance!

rokyo

You might want to read several of George Smith's posts about it first. He has first-hand experience.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/?s=mechanical+turk

Start with this one: http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/?p=16830

Short version: Digital sweatshop.

Thanks! After reading a few of George's articles about MTurk, I think my first impression was right: It's completely anti-worker. So not an option to make a few bucks on the side.

If I look at some of George's calculations, like how much energy costs your PC produces while you do those "few-cents-jobs" on MTurk, I think it'd be more profitable to collect old soda cans on the street or something similar...


What I find really depressing, though, is the fact that people still work at MTurk, despite the horrible conditions! If everybody would refuse to work under these conditions (since no one can force you to use MTurk), there wouldn't be an MTurk. Amazon would have to close it down. Sadly, the workers and consumers of the world have forgotten what power they hold: Without consumers and bare-hand workers, NOT A SINGLE business could be profitable... except maybe banks.

i think the problem is that most people doing these jobs are from poorer countries. i can only assume that they get the same rate, so it would count for more.
and that's why the solution is not boycot, but the law.
it should be unlawful to deliver work to someone, and that other can decide whether they pay you or not, but keeping the works result anyway. that is inhuman, and i'm pretty sure it would be illegal in my country.
so let's hope that we find better means to regulate these online (and thus global) business "ideas".
the internet, it's like capitalism before social democrats. it's time to apply (social) legislation.

Agreed...but not everyone has that choice. When you're desperate for money, you take what you can get.

I graduated during the worst of the "Great Recession." There were no jobs to be had, my "plan B" fell through, and I did freelance web copy for a bit. Sure, it kept the wolf from the door, but it was an awful place to work. You were held to increasingly difficult standards (for the pay), and even then you'd often get nothing, if you got unlucky with an editor. I'm just now getting over the burnout from it. There's way, way more to the story, too.

Yeh. I saw it too (while reading up about crowd sourcing portals !?!). Not what I expected. Facts don't match expectations.

The laborers are crowd sourced and they "stand" at the gates of the digital fortress ready to sell their skills and small "wares". They also have to provide their own tools (packages) and equipment (computers). Inside the fortress are the traders who buy what they please and pay a paltry sum to the lucky serf. Meanwhile the lord of the manor (owner of the digital property) takes his cut from every transaction.

This is exactly how "work from home scams" work.

This is also how contract labor works in third world countries. Every major town has a place where unemployed laborers gather every morning and a lucky few get selected for daily jobs working for a big contractor.

OK

It's day laborers, computer-style.

This is pretty funny.

The guy sees a ton of jobs which pay very little and then concludes that "in the future of the networked gig/free-lance economy, most of us aren’t qualified for work that pays even a cent". It's almost like he believes that he's entitled to a job, a point which he slams home by reference to 'labor protections' in the next sentence, "This is what awaits in a globally networked world where there are zero labor protections, only digital mechanisms which pit all against all for the sake of corporate America." Wow, bottled crazy. Also, MTurk is an aggregate of jobs, not a corporation.

I may be an outlier here, but when I looked up Mechanical Turk and saw that there were zillions of jobs that didn't pay very much, I had two thoughts: 1. That's cool, and 2. I can't see making a lot of money there, so I'll take my business somewhere else. It's cool because it's an aggregation of jobs which pay less than minimum wage, which if someone were bright and motivated enough could automate those tasks. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere because I'm not bright or motivated enough to browse the site for longer than a minute at a time. Note that at no point did I conclude that we need violent labor unions to make some supposed corporation on the internet pay an 'acceptable wage' for writing movie reviews - I can do 99% of what a peaceful union can do, without the payment to the union, myself: work somewhere else.

Also, it's hilarious that George Smith rants about not having a job but he also wants every job to be minimum wage. You can't have it both ways: minimum wage laws only limit the jobs that are worth doing for whatever arbitrary amount if enforced. As soon on MTurk, there's a potentially endless list of things that you can do for less than min. wage, and everyone's incredibly free to not do those things at all until they find it worth their time.

After so many years, still they haven't succeeded in automating something like medical transcription in part because there are lot of vested interests in outsourcing it. Same applies to MT. (not medical transcription but mechanical turk).

OK

@Myk267

your statement is so us-centric, the attitude towards work and labor...

you should really come to live in some central- or north european country for ~10 years to see that there are other ways. actually working social democracies.

also, somehow it's really obvious that you are economically better off than most people on this planet. and most probably very proud of it.

that said, george smith and the article that started this thread is really populistic. meaning "not good" in my book.