Mon, 24 Jul 2006

Mechanical Turks

I'm not sure what to think about this: virtual sweatshop or blessed relief for the bored and intelligent? I tried it out myself after reading, and allegedly made $0.15 in about 15 minutes. We'll see if my answers were accepted, though - the terms of service are particularly stiff. But it was kinda fun ...

A picture of a woman's pink shoe floats on my computer screen. It's a flat, a street version of a ballet shoe. My job is to categorize the shoe based on a list of basic colors: Is it red, blue, pink, purple, white, green, yellow, multicolored? A description next to it reads "Pink Lemonade Leather." This is not exactly a brain-busting task; I'm doing it while talking to a friend on the phone. With the mouse, I check a box marked "pink." In the next split second, a picture of a navy blue shirt appears. I check "blue." Assuming my answers jibe with those of at least two other people being paid to scrutinize the same pictures, I've just earned 4 cents.

(link) [Salon]

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