Finding workers, finding a job, and making money, the Mechanical Turk way
Amazon calls it "artificial artificial intelligence". Many are calling it a new way to earn money on the web.
Mechanical Turk is a marketplace established so that people and companies that have jobs they need done can outsource those jobs to people who want to do them. The types of jobs are usually small tasks that require a human's input --- like transcribing an audio recording, or taking a survey, or identifying objects in a photo. These are self-contained tasks that a worker can finish, submit the answer, and collect a reward for completing.
NPR Marketplace's Joel Rose just ran a story on Mechanical Turk, from the angle of folks who are using Mechanical Turk to supplement their incomes by completing these small jobs while they are online.
Starts Joel Rose:
I wanted to find out if these workers are using Mechanical Turk as a substitute for a traditional job. So I did what any employer would do to find workers on the site.
I wrote a description of the job, and I offered money. It wasn't very much, just five cents for anyone who completed a short survey. By the next morning, I had 100 replies. More than a dozen people said yes, they're trying to replace income from a lost job.
So if you want to earn a little extra money while online, or if you have some jobs that you want done and need to find some workers, then you might want to check out Mechanical Turk.
