- Digital sweatshop
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Digital Sweatshop refers to companies that are using cloud labor through Value Added Reseller (VAR). Cloud labor is labor routed through the internet. Those companies take advantage of cloud computing services and applications in order to allow individuals, contractors and employees to perform a job at the lowest wage possible. Most digital sweatshops intentionally hire individuals as contractors and subcontractors in order to avoid paying income tax, Medicare tax, and benefits to workers.
Some have referred to digital sweatshops as Crowdsourcing. However, digital sweatshops can take many forms, unlike Crowdsourcing, which is typically done online directly in the cloud: the job can be routed and performed online directly. For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk allows workers to perform tasks online and report directly though the platform. A task can be as simple as writing product descriptions and reviews for a penny each.
Another type of digital sweatshop is known as Crowdoutsourcing, which uses a marketplace to route work that can be performed physically offline at a specific location. For example, OnForce.com, one of the largest computer repair marketplaces, allows service buyers or providers to route work orders to computer technicians in the marketplace. The marketplace is crowded with service professionals, forcing them to compete and allowing the providers to set their own prices.
A third form of digital sweatshop is working at home. The Red Cross utilized this form successfully during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, by using LiveOps.com, a system similar to OnForce, but specializing in Cloud Call Center by allowing workers to work at home in the cloud. Demonstrating the appeal of employing this form of digital sweatshopping, the Red Cross used LiveOps to process 17,000+ calls without having to open or hire staff for a call center.
Top Three (3) Digital Sweatshops:
- Crowdsourcing: Amazon Mechanical Turk
- Crowdoutsourcing: OnForce Marketplace
- Work at Home Digital Sweatshop: LiveOps
Other Digital Sweatshops:
References
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/12/07/work-the-new-digital-sweatshops.html
http://onforcesucks.com/forums/index.php?topic=28.0
http://www.crowdsourcing.org/aboutCategories:
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