Communications of the ACM

Home/Magazine Archive/August 2022 (Vol. 65, No. 8)/The Dawn of Crowdfarms/Abstract

Contributed articles

The Dawn of Crowdfarms

By Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Yong Yue, Jonathan Grudin
Communications of the ACM, August 2022, Vol. 65 No. 8, Pages 64-70
10.1145/3490698
Comments

View as: Print Mobile App ACM Digital Library In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Hacker News Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook

group looking together at same computer displays — Credit: DC Studio

Crowdsourcing is the process by which organizations or individuals outsource tasks with an online "open call."⁹ With tasks posted, and instructions and finished goods digitally exchanged, crowdsourcing enables the geographically distributed online workforce and work solicitors to cooperate on various tasks—improving productivity, social mobility, and the global economy.

Key Insights

Common crowdsourcing practice, illustrated by Amazon Mechanical Turk, comprises the completion of tasks by crowdworkers as opposed to solely computational systems. This approach has achieved impressive results in data clustering, content labeling, and other small tasks that individuals can complete in a short time. However, this has limited the opportunities for crowdworkers to collaborate and develop specialized skills while preventing crowdsourcing to be applied to projects that require higher levels of expertise and closer teamwork, such as software development and industrial design.

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.