Are there any equivalents of Amazon Turk that are more substantial, such as researching a project?

February 16, 2010 12:07 PM

Are there any equivalents of Amazon Turk that are more substantial, such as researching a project?

Pay isn't necessary, nor is putting it on a CV, though that would be useful.

posted by Jazzwick to Society & Culture (14 answers total)

Not sure what you mean here. What about Amazon Turk doesn't work for you? I can't even tell if you're asking this question as a researcher or someone who wants to participate.
posted by shaun uh at 12:11 PM on February 16, 2010

Response by poster: Like, with Amazon Turk you can be allocated tasks. But they're too small for me, so I was wondering if there was any others that gave out much more complex teasks. I'm someone who wants to participate.
posted by Jazzwick at 12:15 PM on February 16, 2010

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I've come across at least one online service that claims to have a pool of experts that will create a long-form, researched answer to a question. I remember seeing examples like, "What's the market like for products like X?"

Is that what you're getting at?
posted by mkultra at 12:24 PM on February 16, 2010

Response by poster: Researching was just one area. It could be researching a project, creating a presentation, anything to keep my mind occupied, cause I don't have much to do (apart from uni).
posted by Jazzwick at 12:27 PM on February 16, 2010

Best answer: At the other extreme is InnoCentive which is more large/difficult research projects.
posted by Durin's Bane at 12:27 PM on February 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: That's similar to what I want, although that's a little more complex. Are there any others in between?
posted by Jazzwick at 12:30 PM on February 16, 2010

Best answer: There are few services that are based around writing articles that you research, such as Bright Hub and Demand Media. Wired article on Demand Media.

It's not the noblest pursuit though — the goal of these articles is solely to show in Google search results and be clicked on.
posted by smackfu at 12:30 PM on February 16, 2010

Check out the links in the CrowdSourcing Directory.
posted by divabat at 12:52 PM on February 16, 2010

Bah, hit post too early. Also try Wikipedia's list of crowdsourced projects.
posted by divabat at 12:53 PM on February 16, 2010

For research, there's a huge list of psychology studies online.
posted by shaun uh at 1:00 PM on February 16, 2010 [3 favorites]

It's not the noblest pursuit though -- the goal of these articles is solely to show in Google search results and be clicked on.

I believe this is also the goal of AskMe, so I wouldn't disparage that too much. There's a reason there are ads all over here for non-members, after all.

I'll second InnoCentive as a legit effort.
posted by rokusan at 1:03 PM on February 16, 2010

You could answer questions for ChaCha - I know someone who does it for fun (even though it pays, minimally).
posted by sarahj at 3:34 PM on February 16, 2010

Similar to ChaCha is KGB. People text in questions, you look them up using Google or the provider's internal database, and they pay you $0.10 per answer or such. If you are fast and there are enough available questions to maintain a good pace, you might make minimum wage.
posted by smackfu at 7:03 PM on February 16, 2010

oDesk
Guru
eLance
posted by lunchbox at 7:11 PM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]