Inside the online sweatshops

Joe from MediaPiston

Stewart,

Thanks for mentioning our young company, MediaPiston in your article.

MediaPiston is a pre-release service, and evolving every day. As such, it does have bugs, and I apologize if we couldn't get the information you were looking for. We're working on a better system of communication between the writers, our staff and the customers.

One thing I'd like to share is that MediaPiston's focus is on high quality -- and that means high pay. Although your $4.25 assignment took an hour, for writers in our system doing dozens of these every day, they go much faster.

Also, MediaPiston is unique in that we apply more scrutiny to new contributors and we reward higher pay and better assignments to demonstrated loyality and consistent high quality.

Unlike a lot of other crowdsourcing platforms that are based on a premise of "lowest bid wins the deal", we believe in higher pay for higher quality and we're building out our system with that philosophy in mind. We believe it will be one of the many things that set us apart.

Best regards,
Joe from MediaPiston

By jheitzeb on 9 Aug 2010

Too quick to judge

The author of this article is too quick to judge. If you actually read some of the research with respect to MechTurk worker's motivation, you would understand that the majority are doing it for fun, out of boredom, or to kill time. Also, many people who are on MechTurk supplying hits are researchers and graduate students who often pay out of pocket to get data for research projects. Research helps society on a whole and is not for profit. Last, I don't think the research community would appreciate our studies being referred to as "menial" or "mindless". Perhaps you should learn a little more about people's motivations before being so quick to judge. Or is it all about getting a good story?

By research1 on 9 Aug 2010

By the way...

The research on motivation for MechTurk workers can be found at: Current Directions in Psychological Science under: Burhmester, Kwang, & Gosling.

I am not defending major corporations who HAVE the money to pay decent wages, but simply find it cost effective not to. However, I am defending the research community who, on a whole, cannot afford their research expenses as it is....and those efforts are to serve mankind in general.

By research1 on 9 Aug 2010

You're spot on.

I've been turking for a few months now, and can attest to the fact that Mr. Mitchell's experiences are typical.

Self-serving denials like MediaPiston's and research1's are typical as well. Most requesters I've dealt with seem to have convinced themselves that they are, if anything OVER-paying, as if it takes no longer to compose a sentence than it does to read one.

It's sickening, but if you need the money desperately enough, you're going to keep going there, tip-toeing through the list of job offers like the minefield it is.

By dualienoted on 9 Aug 2010

Turker Worker

I think your experience with MTurk represents that of most people on their first day or so looking through the site. There are a lot of tasks that are not worth doing, this is true. But many of the tasks are nearly mindless. If you can be making $1.50 an hour while watching a movie or doing other stuff, why not?

Likewise, if you are willing to devote some time and hard work, requesters often reward you with higher and higher qualifications. By doing this, I have been able to get some batches of HITs that pay between $10-$20 an hour.

You're right, MTurk is never something I would rely on for rent or as a full time job. But in my free time? Make a couple extra hundred a month? Yes please.

By araenel on 13 Aug 2010