Here's a fascinating convergence of technology and union organizing.
Turkopticon has created a Firefox extension that let's you better monitor/evaluate Mechanical Turk employers. Are we approaching a
"The Jungle" moment in the world of crowdsourced workers rights? The verbiage on this site sounds like a harbinger of such:
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We're watching out for the crowd in crowdsourcing because nobody else seems to be.
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HELP WANTED
$1.20 / hour
Risk of repetitive stress injury
No care for on-the-job injuries
No guaranteed minimum wage
No guarantee of payment
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Turkopticon raises a compelling point. MT workers are engaged in a wholly new type of relationship with their employers. They're performing microtasks - unknown, unseen, and managed via an automated system over which the employers don't have complete control. MT turns the human mind into a massive computational engine. This innovation brings both tremendous opportunity for solving new sorts of problems, while offering work via more flexible arrangements. However, it it is sure to raise many valid questions about workers rights.
At the very least, like the process of industrialization in the late 19th century, we're going through a transformation in the nature and role of work. And we've only yet begun...
