Specialists and Generalists: is Mechanical Turk the Blueprint for Future Work?

« Steve Rubel Analyzes Buzz with Google, Alexa, Technorati and Indeed.com | Main | GoToMeeting vs. LiveMeeting - Cutting Edge Isn't Always the Best »

May23

Specialists and Generalists: is Mechanical Turk the Blueprint for Future Work?

Diane Ensey

Know More: Amazon, Collaboration, Mechanical Turk, Second Life 2.0, Mechanical Turk

What if you managed a project or a business where the small details were farmed out to be done (and paid for) in micro-chunks. This is what Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service does. It is an online employment exchange for micro-tasks that need to be done by a person but which can be parcelled out via the Web.

Mark Wallace takes it even further - what if those tasks were parcelled out to people within a virtual world, such as Second Life (SL)? The tasks may take from a few minutes to an hour to complete, the player submits the finished product and is paid immediately.

This scenario leads naturally to the question: who ties everything together? Will the generalists migrate to be the hub around which an ever-changing cast of specialists revolves?

In a way we've seen this happen already in outsourcing. There are even virtual companies, that outsource everything, R&D, manufacturing, fulfillment and billing. Mark suggests that this model can be scaled down infinitely.

I'm putting together a simple postcard that I can use to follow-up with prospects. One person has created a drawing, another provided some copy and I'm pulling them both together for the card. Is this how most work will be done in the future?

Update: A commenter to Mark's post says that Amazon's Mechanical Turk isn't widely used at all.

related entries

Getting Beyond Twitter's Hype Mar 14, 2007
Syncura P2P File Sharing Releases 1.5 with 300 Bugfixes Feb 6, 2007
CollectiveX Initiates Added-Feature Pricing Feb 6, 2007
Etiquette and Instant Messaging Jan 16, 2007
iPhone Jan 15, 2007

2 Comments/Trackbacks

Mechanical Turk is still a "beta" service, which may be why not that many people are using it yet. Actually, I checked it out and it looks like lots of people are using it, and there really are thousands of jobs in it right now. Ok, they pay like $0.01 but it's hardly empty.

Posted by: Marcus | May 23, 2006 11:32 PM | Permalink to Comment

Thanks for pointing that out, Marcus. Have you used it, either as an employer or a contractor?

Posted by: Diane Ensey | May 24, 2006 12:48 PM | Permalink to Comment

Comments/Trackbacks are closed for maintenance.

« Steve Rubel Analyzes Buzz with Google, Alexa, Technorati and Indeed.com | Main | GoToMeeting vs. LiveMeeting - Cutting Edge Isn't Always the Best »

Advertise

Related Resources

Advertise Here

recent comments

suhas on iPhone
Konzert Tickets on Office 2007 Beta New Release Coming
on Allow Clients to Self-Schedule Appointment
on Allow Clients to Self-Schedule Appointment
engineer on Assessing Web Collaboration Applications: Central Desktop

sponsored ads

topics

subscribe

Subscribe
What's this?

Prefer Email?
Subscribe below-

Current News

resources

Bookmark this Page
Write for us
About us
Team
Contact
Subscribe
Advertise
Network Map
Privacy
Disclaimer

Support This Blog

archives

blogroll

Know More Media - Technology / Computers / Software

know more media network

View Network Map

Network Feed List (OPML)

Know More Media Network
Feed

we support unitus

PRWeb

Influencer

DoRealTime is a member of the Know More Media network of business related blogs.

Here are some current headlines from some of our business publications:

ProductivityGoal

CallCenterScript

AdHurl

TheBizofKnowledge

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 619

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 620

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 621

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 622

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 737

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 738

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 739

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 740

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 619

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 620

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 621

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 622

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 737

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 738

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 739

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 740

HealthCareVox

BrainBasedBusiness

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 619

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 620

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 621

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 622

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 737

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 738

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 739

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 740

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 619

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 620

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 621

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 622

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 737

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 738

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 739

Warning: date() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /usr/www/users/chrisycm/kmm-network/includes/rss2html/rss2html.php on line 740