Minds for Sale: Difference between revisions

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''Lead: Jonathan Zittrain''
''Lead: Jonathan Zittrain''


When most people think of crowdsourcing, the positive example of Wikipedia is the first thing that comes to mind; what better way to harness the entirety of human knowledge than to outsource its summary and consolidation to all of mankind. The internet has found myriad ways to capture the collective productivity of its users, but this powerful process--known as crowdsourcing--raises several serious concerns.
In this presentation, Jonathan Zittrain will outline his current work on the concepts of ubiquitous human computing and distributed work. Encompassing phenomena from gamification, CAPTCHAs and Mechanical Turk to the X Prize, he will examine the consequences of crowdsourcing, economically, legally and socially, review the development and present state of the practice, and invite the audience to think ahead to its possible futures.
 
Sites like [https://www.mturk.com/ Amazon's Mechanical Turk] indicate a disturbing trend in cyberspace towards treating people as if they were higher functioning machines that, for small rewards, accomplish tasks without awareness of their moral valence.  From more obviously sinister examples like Texas allowing people to virtually police the Mexican border through open access webcams, to seemingly unproblematic tasks like committing, filming and posting a random act of kindness for a reward of fifty cents, these forms of transaction raise major concerns about this nascent, but extremely powerful practice and what it means to treat human minds as an entirely accountable resource.


==Relevant Models==
==Relevant Models==

Revision as of 15:48, 3 August 2011

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Overview

Friday, 10:00 to 11:00
Lead: Jonathan Zittrain

In this presentation, Jonathan Zittrain will outline his current work on the concepts of ubiquitous human computing and distributed work. Encompassing phenomena from gamification, CAPTCHAs and Mechanical Turk to the X Prize, he will examine the consequences of crowdsourcing, economically, legally and socially, review the development and present state of the practice, and invite the audience to think ahead to its possible futures.

Relevant Models

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