[iDC] Introductions

[Sara C. Kingsley]

Hi all,


I’d like to introduce myself (Sara C. Kingsley), and my coauthor, Dr. Mary
L. Gray.


 I’m a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (M.S.,
Labor Studies).  Broadly my research focuses on online (labor) markets and
the degree of competition that exists within them, both in terms of labor
and commodity supply.   Specifically, I’m interested in how the
distribution of information online affects market competition, particularly
on crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT).  I’m also
currently working on a series of spectrum pilot projects in sub-Saharan
Africa, and evaluating the economic impact the networks have on regional
economies.


Mary <http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mlg/> studied anthropology
before receiving her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of
California at San Diego in 2004. She draws on this interdisciplinary
background to study how people use digital and social media in everyday
ways to shape their social identities and create spaces for themselves.
Mary’s most recent book, *Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer
Visibility in Rural America* (NYU Press), examined how young people
negotiate and express their lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender identities in
rural parts of the United States and the role that media, particularly the
internet, play in their lives and political work. She served on the
Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association from 2008 until
2010, recently held a seat on that Association's Committee on Public
Policy, and will chair the Executive Program Committee for the 2014 AAA
Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. Mary is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft
Research, New England Lab. She maintains an appointment as Associate
Professor of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, with adjunct
positions in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies.


The paper I’ll present at the conference analyzes crowdsourcing as a labor
market through the example of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT).  The paper
considers how power dynamics between requesters (“employers”) and
crowdworkers (“employees”) set the terms for and expectations of employment
relations.  The paper argues crowdsourcing could, in theory, circulate work
fairly and directly to individuals seeking to do microtasks online for
pay.  However, as practiced, commercial crowdsourcing services, like AMT,
1) systematically occlude the information workers need to choose
appropriate employment opportunities, and 2) implicitly make individuals
bear the high costs of finding viable tasks to do.  The paper evaluates the
AMT labor market in terms of monopsony power to diagnose the dynamics and
behaviors commonly observed on the platform.


More information about the larger project from which this paper originates
can be found here <http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/crowdwork/>,
along with information about the research team, here
<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/crowdwork/researchteam.aspx>.


Cheers,

Sara

-- 
Sara C. Kingsley
+1(978)844-4141
@sara_kingsley3
skype: sarackingsley3
www.sarackingsley.net
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