ICT4EMPL "The Future of Work" From Crowd to Cloud: The - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
ICT4EMPL "The Future of Work" From Crowd to Cloud: The Present and Future of Work in the Network Economy the role of Online Work Exchanges Virtual Work, Bucharest March 2014 This work was funded by and conducted at This
From Crowd to Cloud: The Present and Future of Work in the Network Economy – the role of Online Work Exchanges
James Stewart University of Edinburgh j.k.stewart@ed.ac.uk
Virtual Work, Bucharest March 2014 This work was funded by and conducted at the JRC-IPTS, European Commission
ICT4EMPL "The Future of Work"
This presentation does not represent the views of the European Commission
My concern from policy?
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New ways of finding work, finding workers, being employed and getting work done Not: ‘Telework’, ‘free labour’ etc
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Potential Policy Opportunties
Employment-related policy (such as labour market
reform, temporary work, youth employment and training, entrepreneurship, self- employment, flexible working, access to work),
(e.g.flexicurity)
Skills policy Digital skills and access,
Enterprise and Markets SMEs and
microenterprises, microfinance
and employment.
Social Policy
International development
10+ years on
Bates and Huws 2002 'eworker' estimates for 2000 in Europe (EMERGENCE Project )
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STS Agendas
Software Infrastructures
Scale –> Big Data Humans and computers ever more tightly entangled Algorithmic matching
media (Facebook etc) Social computing and classification
ICT and Work
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On-site
Location of Work
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Off-site
Who works through these systems?
Working and Unemployed Students – gaining experience, reputation or spare cash People with families looking for flexibility Disabled housebound Rural dwellers Middle-aged restarters Retired people supplementing pension
Freelance occupations
Professionals in South Asia and other emerging economies Microbusiness and freelancers buying services from others
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Types of tasks (after Frei)
Size, org,pay example Microtasks High volume; low pay per task; automated Transcription, classifying, price search, find simple info 'Macro'-tasks High volume, low pay, automated Product review, simple testing, simple info collecting (e.g marketing) Simple projects Low volume, single tasks, with skill and moderate pay. Direct contact Design a website Do accounts Write a presentation Design a logo Complex projects Single projects, high pay, often multiple people, direct contact Scientific challenges Algorithm design Complex research
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TWO GENERIC OPERATING AND BUSINESS MODELS
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Crowdsourced Microwork model
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Crowd Platforms Task Managers and Resellers
Local intermediaries
Curating the crowd Clients (direct integration) Clients (ad hoc) APIs
Crowd self-
Microwork design Workflow integration Quality Matching Recruitment Worker interface (motivation, quality, payment), APIs,
BPO
workforce
Freelancer Marketplace model
Trust Efficiency Transparency
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Contractors
Clients
Intermediaries and market makers Large clients
Matching Payments Quality Dispute management Support Work platforms
Value added services Competitions Contracts Rent-a-crowds
Teams
Access to clients Support and training Access to Cntractors Value added services Tax Training Mentors Resources
EXISTING RESEARCH CONCERNS AND RESULTS
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Research on online exchanges
Crowdsourcing – business models + some critical user
studies (Brabham 2010, 2011, 2013). Elancing’ from an HR
perspective (Aguinis and
Lawal 2013)
Microtask platform use –
e.g. in scientific experiments (Iperitos 2008,210a, 2010b)
Labour economics
perspective (Agrawal et al 2013)
Virtual labour Huws 2003;
Scholz 2012; Kleemann and Voß, 2008; Huws 2013; Holts (2013) Caraway (2010) )
Legal issues (Felstiner (2011) Microworker identity
(Lehdonvirta and Mezier (2013) Microworker empowerment - Turkopticon (Irani and Silberman 2013).
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Open the black box of job search
(Petrongolo and Pissarides, 2001; Marchal et al 2007).
formal and informal information channels (e.g. Granovetter 1974) role of intermediaries whose work is to match vacancies sellers and buyers (see Marchal et al 2007).
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Literature Practitioner Interviews Short Cases Inductive In depth qualitative cases and analysis Outsourced to Warwick university
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Specialist Generalist Global Proz (Translators) Microtask Elance; AMT National/ Regional Trada (optimizers) PPH; Clickworker Local Rated People (domestic trades) Slivers (Social care) (Local listings)
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Online freelance sites:
12m worldwide (World Bank estimates from adding top 3 elancer sites, neglects multiple membership)
Elance 2.3+ million registered users 715k in US, 359k India, 80k UK $200m elancer earnings. 48% say main source of income Odesk Matched 35m hours of work in 2012 workers in 179 countries $360m earned. 2/ 3 workers > 50% of family income Freelancer claims 7m registered workers, 4.5m completed projects Staffing industry Analysts estimate $1bn value in 2012 ($2bn 2014) Proz 600 000 registered translators, 20 000 paying members Trada 10000s of users 300 regular workers
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Microwork Numbers
Clickworker 300 000 Clickworkers 1/ 3 Germany, 1/ 3 rest of Europe 1/ 3 North America Crowdflower Claim a crowd of over 2 million 4m human judgments per day 959,582,877 judgements (8/ 6/ 2013) Amazon Mechanical Turk
“The only numbers that we share regarding our Worker population are these two: Over 500K registered Workers from over 190 countries worldwide.” Jan 2011 Jobs 1cent-$10 Iperitos, using 2008 data Turkers are younger. Turkers are mainly female. Turkers have lower income. of the general
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Rates of Pay
Clickworker 8-9euros/ hour Elance – minimum $3/ hour Mturk $0.10 1-2min HIT Penny HITS - for the desperate, adjusted to local (low wage) labour rates. X Time worked Clickworker most people earn less than $300/ month Trada – top earners on > $5 000 month full time Odesk – 2/ 3 earn over 50% of family income. Proz – full time professional occupation
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In Europe
There are microworkers (culturally specific microtasks) There are online freelancers etc How many? Millions How could we count them?
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VALUE AND RISKS
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Value and risks for clients
New Value Only solution On demand Speed Scalable
work HR
global wage rates Risks
permanent staff
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Suggested value and risk for workers
‘Free’, ‘Cheap’, 'exploitation 'insecurity' ‘Flexible’, 'freedom', 'opportunity'
Non-economic
Flexibility Self employment Work-life balance Life course Try out, and learn new skills Something to do
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Economic
Makes independent work more feasible Re-enter labour market ‘Extra cash’ Supplement main income Access to (global) clients Transparency of markets - Trust in market Build a portfolio of clients. Specialisation (Malone et al) Access to work for excluded Tools for productivity Develop skills and employability
Key business innovations
How did these exchanges become this way and where are they going?
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Intermediaries need to attract and keep customers in a sceptical and competitive market Multiple Quality Systems ‘
Market management
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Trust and Quality
E-REPUTATION, RATINGS AND QUALIFICATIONS
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E- Reputation in the marketplace
Workers
Rating on every job
Algorithmic Reputation Calculation Computer generated story
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(compare with Tripadvisor)
Dispute resolution
Reputation – the Client/Buyers
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A
Rating by supplier Bluebook comments B No rating Off-platform fora or hacktivism (Turkopticon) Depends on the business model of intermediary, and the balance of the market.
Qualifications and Validated workers
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Disputes over qualification tests
“I was up until 1.00am completing the Qualify Author
58%. I felt this was a good article which fitted the brief and used SEO [Search engine optimization] words so I have emailed them. I'm pretty sure it was because the computer timed me (even though I didn't see anywhere which said this was a timed section) out as I'm 4 stars on text broker and got 100% on the 72 questions.” “ Had an email back. They agreed the article was better than the 58% and have changed my mark. He explained it was a little off topic and doesn't need to have witty remarks and more about keywords. At least I can work for them
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Transferability
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Private marketplaces – privatised qualification & reputation scores Non-Transferable Key to business model – keep workers on the platform
BUT
User-driven portability Posting reputation scores outside the site (Linkedin) Growing recognition.
THE CROWD: INDIVIDUALIST OR COLLECTIVIST?
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Worker Support and networking
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A community from a crowd
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Emerging e-working ecosystem
Ecosystem of competitive services and user-generated support
User Organisation activities
http: / / cloudmebaby.com/ mturkblog/ moneysavingexpert.com )
building businesses
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Crowds become communities that:
the practices and logic of work though online exchanges – how to perform in this new eco-system.
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POLICY QUESTIONS AND CHALLENGES
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Enterprise - SMEs
How much start-up, SME and microbusiness growth will/could this type of work exchange create? In what sectors? Countries? How many people might this growth provide work for?
For how much of their time? For what overall income? In which sectors of the workforce
What kind of support could be given to promote access to services through these exchanges?
Identity proof?
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Employment and Employability
Does working through exchanges and crowdsourcing platforms provide:
For whom, in what sectors, in what countries? Who does it exclude?
Which sort of people are better prepared for this work, and why?
How can we support people to develop freelance skills and work ?
Could this be integrated with public employment services, how, where?
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Export of Jobs?
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Welfare issues
Self-employed: low earnings, discontinuous work, low skills, long and non-standard working hours, the high incidence of industrial accidents and work-related health problems
Do we want to encourage this? Or do we just have to cope with this reality? Policy concerns
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Platform Support?
Why do these platforms not exist in some sectors/countries/regions? Are what rate are they growing? What would be the impact on employment (growth, reduction) and wages if they did exist?
If they are desirable to support growth and/or employment,
What can public policy makers and public services do to:
Stimulate growth in these platforms – focused in sectors, regions that will most benefit/ most in need? Integration of e-government services with platforms.
What are the Risks of promoting this type of working?
Insecure work, exploitation, resistance from social partners
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Potential policy interest
Reactive
Training and skills Constraints on autonomous workers in Europe Protection of workers Flexibility in hiring freelancers Adapt e-gov systems Long term Welfare and Economic issues
Proactive
1.Model and ideas for social innovation: Public services
working patterns: opportunities for
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DISCUSS
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Summary Explore: Innovation and investment necessary to build confidence in platforms, and attract clients and contractors Conditions of work, including the pressures
machines Potential socio-economic impact
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More info on the JRC-IPTS research
JRC-IPTS Employability-The Future of Work
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Or James Stewart j.k.stewart@ed.ac.uk