A mobile phone application called Twitch, which allows its users to easily participate in crowdsourcing projects, was developed by researchers led by Michael Bernstein of Stanford University in California.
In general, participants in crowdsourcing programs often receive some remuneration for performing simple tasks, however, very often these tasks take up a lot of the time someone is sitting at the computer, resulting in a point of interest being lost. In the case of Twitch, crowdsourcing is transferred to mobile, with the application replacing the “unlock” screen with a special interface for crowdsourcing: instead of the user making the usual “unlock” gesture, he performs such tasks as, for example, choosing the best between two photos or confirming (or not) an incident/event mentioned on a website like Wikipedia.
According to a report in New Scientist, Bernstein's team uploaded Twitch to Google Play and "recruited" 82 of the people who downloaded it. These users completed 11,200 tasks over a three-week period. The researchers estimate that the idea will be a hit, as each task is extremely fast - only slightly more time-consuming than the normal movement of "unlocking" the mobile phone. At the same time, the "mental load" is considered negligible.
According to Rajan Weiss of the University of California, Santa Cruz (who will present the application at a conference in Toronto in April), the process of participating in crowdsourcing processes often seems tedious, but when they are demonstrated one by one on Twitch, the audience will be encouraged, as there will be essentially no time commitment. “Research can now be done by anyone and important things can be learned quickly and by many people using mobile phones,” he notes. It is also expected to pave the way for the great facilitation of consumer research.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
