[iDC] Thinking about digital piecework and research/ers

[Gray, Mary Louise]

Hey all,
This seems like a good time to introduce myself.
: )

My name is Mary Gray. I responded to Sarah's FB post. I wanted to clarify: Sid Suri (a co-author on the presentation that I'm doing with Sara Kingsley in a few weeks at the conference) and I do take up the question of researchers as employers on MTurk and other crowdsourcing platforms. We don't plan to present that work at the New School conference but, like Sarah Roberts, I'd love a chance to talk with others about this. I don't think it's a coincidence that academics have a hard time seeing their research in terms of "labor" or as work...academic institutions have other metaphors for labor relationships--apprentice, student, advisee--that may make it even harder for researchers to see that they are operating as employers when they use crowdsourcing platforms.

Now for that introduction:

www.maryLgray.org

I'm a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, New England. I am also an Associate Professor in the Media School, with adjunct appointments in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies, at Indiana University. I studied Anthropology before receiving my Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego in 2004. My research looks at how media access and everyday uses of technologies transform people's lives. My last book, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America (New York University Press, 2009), looked at how young people in the rural United States use media to negotiate their sexual and gender identities, local belonging, and connections to broader, imagined communities (in short--media's role in "identity work"). My current book project, co-authored with Computer Scientist Siddharth Suri, examines digital workforces and the future of work through case studies of present day paid crowdsourcing on four different platforms, comparing workers' experiences in the United States and India. More information about the project can be found at: www.research.microsoft.com/crowdwork . I served on the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association from 2008 through 2010 and am the Executive Program Chair for the Association's 113th Annual Meeting. 

Looking forward to meeting everyone in a few weeks.
Best,
mary

On Oct 6, 2014, at 2:53 PM, Sarah T. Roberts <sarah.roberts at uwo.ca> wrote:

> Greetings, all -
> 
> I recently asked a question on the #dl14 Facebook page and thought I’d send it out to all on the list. As a researcher actively engaged in trying to bring to light the economic and labor realities of people working in digital piecework contexts, I have been disturbed that people, often my own peers (e.g., parties from my graduate school department), turn to services like Mechanical Turk and others to provide large-scale processing of tasks related to research projects, with seemingly little or no interrogation or critique of the economy upon which they are relying to conduct their research. While I’m sure the way these projects get past ethics boards is due to the compensation that the projects provide, there is such minimal accountability and ability for either researcher or subject to follow up/follow through once the research task is completed that it seems a dangerous practice in which to engage. This is even before we enter into a critique of these platforms, in general.
> 
> When I brought this up on Fb, I asked if anyone coming to #dl14 might be working on this topic. One person responded that she’s not working directly on it, but is interested in it and wants to talk more about it. It would be great to get a discussion going on the list that could then spill over into our time together in NYC.  
> 
> Anyone interested?
> 
> Best,
> Sarah
> 
> ---
> 
> S a r a h  T.  R o b e r t s,  P h. D.
> 
> Assistant Professor
> Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) 
> Western University
> http://fims.uwo.ca/index.htm
> 
> Blogging periodically at
> http://illusionofvolition.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity
> 
> List Archive:
> http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/
>