I first got to know about Mechanical Turk (Mturk) from Freeman Murray’s blog. Distributed work opportunity is an exciting avenue that I constantly explore around.
I tried Mturk briefly & here is what I have to share with you:
So, What is Mechanical Turk?
A story of Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen’s The Trojan horse like bluff which passed off as the first Artificial Intelligence creation is the inspiration behind the Amazon Web services team creation
The likes of web 2.0 make us believe like any activity you can think of is possible over the web but save those finicky likening & traits of what you call human nature is not so simple. So why not put a plain cold ‘front end’ which can accept your commands without messing in with elaborate contracts & on the other hand helps you do those odd jobs which at the backend neatly distributes to the people looking for a lark. The approach is as casual like ‘speed dating’.
The process is neat through a simple assessment test screens through what sort of jobs you are capable of executing and permits you enter the knowledge labor’s market place for selling your time. I went through a series of question, which mostly was identifying the several American brands you would associate with the apparels. The questions were simple. ‘Google search’ & ‘Yahoo Answers’ served my cheat codes to crack this exam. Ofcourse not without wasting a lot of time, that reflected on my low score rated at 5 points.
The qualification score put a cap on the kind of assignments I can take. The task called HITs – Human Intelligence Tasks, can be of different types & it is still evolving.
Most of the task are very rudimentary like work on photo edits, scrapping the info, GIS info, verification, tagging. There can be some interesting & silly jobs too like drawing a sheep images for 2 cents, but add up 10000 such post cards & it makes a beautiful piece Internet art.
The jobs I enjoyed were reviews, post blog comments, opinions, and ranking of preferences. I undertook 12 tasks spread over 3/ 4 sessions, spent an average 45 minutes on a task. And predictably after the initial excitement it turned out to be a tad boring The kind of money they offered was a big disappointment, After spending over 4 hours I made a punny 47 US cents! , In Indian currency just Rs 21 /-! It sucks! 
Even after a year of launch, (Nov 2005) it has failed to get the right traction. Readwriteweb has an interesting post on the Mturks performance. The consensus is Amazon has not taken the project seriously & I completely agree with it.
I would like to add to the debate, Can Mturk be ideal for the 3rd world countries? One big hose can suck up and aggregate all the jobs with the potential to outsource them?
I bet it has a rich possibility, The BPO cost advantage / work opportunity hasn’t trickled down widely beyond the large corporates on either sides. Further the work opportunity and motivation will differ from US to say, in India or Brazil. In US they see it as a spare time activity, but an Indian would like to have a more dependable source of Income with a defined work activity The flexibility of working hours without a screaming deadline will be an added bonus. Given a large part of the educated women work force is voluntarily a homemaker, where there is little option for a skill-based work, here M-turck promises great hope.
Another point is developing circles of expertise. Voice transcription; image editing; GIS data editing; tagging are some good example of no-brain jobs that anyway has no appeal in the US. Applying specific domain expertise jobs like language translation, Book keeping etc also holds tremendous potential. “Virtual Assistance” is an accepted norm within the boundaries of the US but the whole market lacks a proper representation.
At higher end, it will be hard to distinguish between an Mturk with Elance. Therefore, you need a better proposition. It needs to develop a complete ecosystem that can benchmark skill sets & manage misgivings & forgeries. The answer will be a mix of Mturk’s nifty way , Elance’s steady source & trust building like Ebay. Any takers?
Focus on the journey, not just the destination. Things rarely go according to plan, but that doesn’t mean one must stop dreaming and doing.
Rajesh Jain reflecting on his initial tough days of entrepreneurship
I read in Nextbillion.net’s Rob Katz post on views & counter views on the Bottom of the Pyramid Market . What followed was a long debate & taking sides but I find both actually talking the same
The so called contradictions highlighted by Prof Karnani & Prof Prahalad are nothing but friction in settling the financial (call it sustainability) matrix & Social matrix at the same time.
In the short term, they may look divergent objectives and rarely the two yardsticks have ever been achieved by a single entity; only at hindsight we realise, neglect of one matrix is a natural failure of the other.
To get a better picture, lets join in some of the dots :
- This “BOP” articulation has at least set the ball rolling in widening the boundaries of the perceived consuming class. Both may debate on the numbers, but even the least common figure is substantial to investigate, invest & subsequently trickle down.
- The learning curve is not linear. - In India Coca cola with Rs 5/- bottles, Amul ice cream with Rs 2/- cones ,did initially fail but all have reconfigured the market & on the net have reached the market which was thought previously as in accessible. We are still at the early stages in the learning curve.
- Price to Quality equation changes rapidly with competition. Nirma’s low quality powder does no more holds the commanding market share . neither has Surf regained its lost glory but has helped segment the market better & thus increasing the over all market size. The challenge is change the ‘price to quality equation’ without considerably sacrificing either of them. Japan Auto makers challenged the then unthinkable replacement of large car concept & Today nifty, & fuel-efficient cars dominate. The initial impetus for change to small cars was from their home base. Does anyone finds the small car shoddy?
- Casa Bahia’s affordable strategy by offering consumer loans may scheme the poor, lets not forget LIFE is still the best learning university to help him make a rational choice. The ‘ones bitten twice shy’ Poor will learn to prioritise & budget the consumption. It is certainly contentious view, difficult for the opinion makers to express it. But Previous experiences are biggest influence on the current decision-making.
- Exposure to quality product sets a benchmark and aspiration to achieve it. Many are poor due to lack of opportunity, but some are also due to lack of will to change their current status quo. Debates like these will help at least assert the existence of the approach or need to serve a wider market & hopefully spark more innovations in serving the poor.
Thanks Prof Karnani & Prof Prahalad you may seem to talk of the other sides of the coin. What matters us is the COIN.
Originally posted at nextbillion.net
The only effective antidote to poverty and deprivation be it in global firms or in rural India initiatives through self help groups, micro finance.
Entrepreneurs create wealth. Wealth creation & not wealth redistribution must be our goal. Creating enabling conditions for entrepreneurs, celebrating their success and promoting entrepreneurs as role models is a critical part of the task ahead.
Dr C K Prahalad, Economic times, Mumbai edition 10th Aug 2006
Via GigaOm
“The right way to build a company is to experiment in lots of small ways, so that you have plenty of room to make mistakes and change strategies.”
Microsoft recently announced FlexGo technology to make computers affordable. The development is important to people in developing economies that still can’t afford to pay the high price for the technology but need the most.
I compliment FlexGo not as a technology breakthrough but as a paradigm shift in Microsoft’s thinking.
For a long time it’s been debated on whether the Bottom of the Pyramid does really needs it? / Deserves it? Or can they afford it? , With FlexGo at least it indicates me the big daddy is finally ready to engage the BOP people.
With every new initiative there are certain positives, certain doubts, certain challenges.
Here I add my 3 pointers to each :
FlexGo, The good idea :
- It’s a fine attempt as a go between to make the technology affordable. Rishab Iyer Gosh mentions for an average Indian a Windows & Office copy costs 14.5 months Income.
- People at the top are practically resigned to the fact of rampant piracy. Chris Anderson of the ‘Long Tail’ even in a way advocates “Just enough piracy” but the sad part is it is baptism to criminal mentality. From my experience working with Cyber Cafes in India, I find the biggest fear is using pirated software. Your conscience beats you even before the fear of getting caught treads in. But the steep prices bring like a solace in justifying it & do bring justification for place of Robin hood economics. FlexGo cuts in the middle path.
- If the concept of FlexGo does get acceptance then it really promises to bring in a new ecosystem of local technology. & rejig with technology options.
FlexGo & the disappointments
The prepaid model in cell phone industry is a fine inspiration but it requires you to be creative in imitation. In the BOP market, where the oral communication skills are stronger than written skills, the cell phone has a rich utility value. Unfortunately the windows platform offers little utility. The emerging market seeks solutions not product.
- FlexGo offer an access to leverage to many credit unworthy people but we need a solution to and opportunity to make money. Remember you got to pay your loans too. Can FlexGo give me sustainable work opportunity?
- FlexGo address to windows XP home system, but a large part of the market is still happy with MS-windows 98 systems. The primary use of PC is for information. Commerce is still a distance. The numerous patches & virus protection are unnecessary & many features are resource hungry. FlexGo fails to address the existing user base. MS is unwilling to shed the extra stuff, which a user may not want. Why burden me?, Windows XP starter editions, (supposed to be a stripped down version of XP professional ) was a nice beginning in India but they don’t seem keen to push the product.
- Finally the critical point is pricing, there is no subscription price indication. Until then I worry about ‘rogue lending’ system
FlexGo & the challenges
- Windows might is due to many application products running on the platform. Graphic tools ‘Photoshop’, Web development tools Dreamweaver, Translation tools Trados, and Stock price charting tools Meta Stock, Quicken for accounting. Window is the door to many such applications. They are niche products but are de-facto in their segment. How many are willing to accept FlexGo?
- Identifying the right market segment is the biggest challenge. The cost of collecting these small changes too is steep. Aggregating these small changes will need the right catchments and different strategies.
- The consumer in the emerging market has a dual challenge of grasping how to read & write but also achieve digital literacy at the same time. Somebody needs to hold their hand before they will be willing to pay for higher end products.
FlexGO & some lingering doubts:
- How the real usage time is going to be measured? Will it include idle time? It’s not unusual to keep your computer on always.
- How many will be willing to add another utility bill? Further nimble Mobile phones are replacing of computer in many ways.
- & Finally I feel it’s too little too late. In a broadband connected environment. Browser has long replaced desktop as my primary interface. Gmail has replaced my outlook express, RSS feeds/ ezines by bloglines, Bookmarks etc by My- Yahoo, The only reason I come back to windows is when I use word processor & spreadsheet & other applications.
In all many question only the time will tell us.
My 2 year old brat Soumya, usually goes every evening to a nearby park along with my Wife or the house help, a trusted lad. But unfortunately it happened that day they did not return on their scheduled time. As the clock ticked away the initial anxiety turned into restlessness. After another hour through my wife, parents were hunting for him & I came rushing from the office. Our neighbours too joined in. We all searched the whole neighbourhood, nearby park, and all the known places but no luck. Finally at 7.00 pm we decided to lodge complain with the local police. The police staff was very kind enough; they could sense our anxiety and made all efforts to calm my wife and to register our request. Its long procedure, the detailed questionnaire is taxing & finally they deputed two constables.
Soon the whole neighbourhood, the locals, friends maybe at least fifty people shared our anxiety & trying in their own way to help us. We visited every place, the hospital, the morgue (my father insisted suspecting the worst), Showed the photo to local police chowky, beat marshal, railway station…. . Finally after 5 hours, the Policeman were able to trace them, It just happened our house help had lost his way. Luckily some person made him sit in a bus to our home. & a constable could match the identity the way we described. We all heaved relief. It was a testing time.
Never thought my blog will start with such a personal note. but to share my reflections on the whole event. The grand parents affection who were making rounds all over , age did not matter. The silent neighbours - the residents the local shops, even the hawker all shared our anxiety & made efforts in their own way to help us. It made a small reminder; in testing time we are not really alone. The concerned police staff, who despite their archaic procedures and dismal working condition still managing their best to help the community. We talk about ICT for development, there was none to the rescue to make the request for search and broadcast more expeditiously.
It reminded me a post on apiap blog about how a small town cafe owner tried to help locate a person with his family.
How can we best harness the cyber technology & the neighbourhood to collaborate to make a better place to live?
This is what I call Cyber Nook .