Press/Studies Article about MTurk with a mention of MTC!

[electrolyte]

Inside Amazon's clickworker platform: How half a million people are being paid pennies to train AI

Internet platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk let companies break jobs into smaller tasks and offer them to people across the globe. But, do they democratize work or exploit the disempowered?

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/inside-amazons-clickworker-platform-how-half-a-million-people-are-training-ai-for-pennies-per-task/

 

[Dutchy]

Communicating with Amazon is, for all practical purposes, virtually impossible. "The lack of support we have is disturbing," said Bhatia. "There's no live chat, no phone number." The only way a Turker can make contact is through email, which prompts a boilerplate response.

"I am utterly baffled by the choices they are making," said Little, "and the number one choice they are making a mistake in is a lack of communication. Why do they want to be so hands off? It can't because of the risk of a lawsuit, because their terms of service clearly state 'No class action lawsuits.'"

Little talked to lawyers, but "none of them would ever take on a single worker against Amazon," he said. And Amazon still refuses to talk. "Not even about rejections, not about improvements, not about how we think they could make more money," he said. "Nothing."

 

[Dutchy]

I know this is just a quote but oh man how does one organize against a monolith

 

[electrolyte]

The writer of this article has been on two online shows talking about MTurk:

TWiT:


Daily Tech News Show:

 

[MrTrentSD]

@electrolyte
I listen to KCRW (Morning Becomes Eclectic and Eclectic 24) while turking and this show was promoted.
Mostly about Uber but Mechanical Turk was mentioned at 24:30. Some 'classification of workers as independent contractors' at 40:00.
The pro Uber / the ‘gig economy is wonderful’ guy was frustrating to hear his thoughts. Basically ‘The Struggle Is Real‘ and that a good thing. Hold on when he talks about health care.

https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/s...-gig-economy-is-changing-the-way-we-view-work

 

[electrolyte]

@electrolyte
I listen to KCRW (Morning Becomes Eclectic and Eclectic 24) while turking and this show was promoted.
Mostly about Uber but Mechanical Turk was mentioned at 24:30. Some 'classification of workers as independent contractors' at 40:00.
The pro Uber / the ‘gig economy is wonderful’ guy was frustrating to hear his thoughts. Basically ‘The Struggle Is Real‘ and that a good thing. Hold on when he talks about health care.

https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/s...-gig-economy-is-changing-the-way-we-view-work

Thanks! I'll check it out.