Net Smart Ch. 3-4

     The term “playbor” refers to a combination of play and labor. Playbor often involves turning a laborious task into an entertaining game. Internet-goers who play these games essentially become sources of free labor for the companies who create the games. One example of playbor is Google Image Labeler (also known as the ESP Game) which was online between 2006 and 2011. Two randomly matched players with no way of communicating with one another would be shown an image for which they would submit descriptive tags. Players received points when they both submitted identical tags. While some may view this as exploitation for free labor, I believe playbor is a win-win scenario as both parties benefit from the game. In this specific example, Google benefits as the accuracy of their image search is improved at no cost to them. The players benefit as they receive a free form of entertainment. Instead of receiving monetary compensation for their work, players are compensated by being entertained. Google is in no way forcing these players to contribute free labor. Rather, the players are doing it because they find it entertaining. If someone were to not find the game entertaining, they could simply stop playing. Only in a situation where one party received nothing in return for their participation would I consider playbor to be exploitative. Otherwise, since both parties receive some form of compensation, playbor is not an exploitative practice.

 

     Collective action involves a group of people coming together to work toward the achievement of a common goal. Many institutions exist, both physically and digitally, that practice collective action. Institutions of collective actions are very relevant to digital writing, as digital writing has allowed for significant magnitudes of collective action that may not have been possible otherwise. One great example of this from chapter 4 of Net Smart is the search for a man named Jim Gray who disappeared at sea. Satellite photographs of the area in which he went missing were provided by Google and NASA. These photographs were then divided into five hundred thousand pieces by Amazon which were examined by twelve thousand online volunteers. Although he was not found, this seemingly impossible task of examining forty thousand square miles of ocean was made possible thanks to digital writing. An original example of collective action that I experienced personally came from the institution of GoFundMe.com. In May of 2015, a friend of mine from high school was killed in a hit and run. Shortly after this happened, a GoFundMe page was created to raise money for her family. In a short time, over four thousand dollars was raised by seventy five donors. Digital writing environments like GoFundMe.com provide the capability to foster collective action quickly and efficiently. They make it easy to share a cause and take action with minimal effort. I am confident that the amount of money raised in that short time span would not have been possible without the existence of institutions of collective action in a digital environment.