Outsourcing 2.0

mTurk has been called the outsourcing of the 21st century...A recent article discusses it well. What is it really? Will projects like this replace traditional outsourcing? mTurk eliminates the equipment costs, the building costs, in fact it eliminates nearly every cost associated with traditional outsourcing...Other then the need to actually pay your workers (Someone's going to make some video game that tricks kids into working for free one of these days though)

As well it's been called one of the best examples of Web 2.0 (we are on the 4th or 5th version of the web already but I'll save that rant)

But when we get down to it...It's simply a solution. A solution to getting a lot of simple work done fast. Of course from here it could evolve into anything. Perhaps it will become the new outsourcing model. One issue with Amazon's basic idea of putting it into programs is that the work isn't necessary done instantly. If mTurk becomes popular among developers, there could quite possibly be more work then workers can do. And a program might have to wait days for it's task to be completed.

I think I can safely say that other major companies, will build mTurk equivalents within the next few years. With bandwidth costs lowing, and companies looking for every way possible to lower costs, this is a great solution. But to be honest...I think things like mTurk will become a reason to learn English for those in China and other countries where $50US a day is great pay. But I am gonna drag as much cash out of mTurk before those in low income countries setup systems to get cash via US Bank Accounts. Or I might just setup a business in a low income country, where I hire those fluent in English to come in and work in a computer lab on mTurk all day. Heh.