From critical design to critical infrastructure: lessons from turkopticon

Author(s): Irani, Lilly; Silberman, M Six | Abstract: Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) demonstrates how infrastructure projects can be designed and undertaken smoothly. AMT is a Web-based labor market that draws workers from all over the world to perform small bits of digital labor for pay. AMT organizes workers for the pleasure of programmers and the productivity of companies and researchers. Turkopticon is one such concept that has been initiated by AMT from 2008 after engagements with Turkers. AMT brings stopgap, short-term jobs to those with limited employment options, due to geography, mobility limitations, or economic conditions. Turkopticon is a application and browser add-on that augments the AMT interface with reviews written by Turkers. Turkopticon, along with crucial worker communities such as Turker Nation, mTurk Forum, CloudMeBaby, mTurk Grind, and the mturk and HITsWorthTurkingFor u0027subredditsu0027 on reddit.com, helps in bridging the worlds of workers and employers.