Turkopticon

2013/04/27 by Lilly Irani, M. Six Silberman · 5 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Artificial intelligence #Computation #Computer science #Data science #Engineering #Engineering ethics #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI #Innovative Human-Technology Interaction #Internet privacy #Invisibility #Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1145/2470654.2470742

openalex publication_date 2013/04/27 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

As HCI researchers have explored the possibilities of human computation, they have paid less attention to ethics and values of crowdwork. This paper offers an analysis of Amazon Mechanical Turk, a popular human computation system, as a site of technically mediated worker-employer relations. We argue that human computation currently relies on worker invisibility. We then present Turkopticon, an activist system that allows workers to publicize and evaluate their relationships with employers. As a common infrastructure, Turkopticon also enables workers to engage one another in mutual aid. We conclude by discussing the potentials and challenges of sustaining activist technologies that intervene in large, existing socio-technical systems.

Citations

• Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces
• Digital interdependence and how to design for it
• The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations
• Who are the crowdworkers?
• Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color

Cited by

• The Fundamentals of Policy Crowdsourcing
• Pseudo-Automation: How Labor-Offsetting Technologies Reconfigure Roles and Relationships in Frontline Retail Work
• The Future Is Rosie?: Disempowering Arguments About Automation and What to Do About It
• Flexibility in the gig economy: managing time on three online piecework platforms
• Crowdsourcing [wikipedia]

Related

• Who are the crowdworkers?
• Amazon Mechanical Turk: The Human Sciences’ Labor Problem
• We Are Dynamo
• Digital Labor: Challenges, Ethical Insights, and Implications
• Crowd Work on a CV? Understanding How AMT Fits into Turkers' Career Goals and Professional Profiles