Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Thursday, April 14, 2011
[Labortainment] Tear down the wall between work and play
Consumer should surely be the king. Would it be possible, then, to use their labor for free? Not just any labor, for that matter; what about redundant labor that requires seemingly endless repetition of a simple task? It would be ingenious if we can make the customers do those tasks instead of outsourcing them or assigning them to a part-time worker.
Imagine an employee named 'John', working in a film company called 'ImageArchive'. John's responsibility is labeling the pictures in accordance to its meaning, such as putting a label 'red car' or 'friendship'. Every day, John would go to work, examine hundreds of pictures and figure out what they depict, then label every single one of them. A person responsible for sub job would soon be tired and fed up with his task. It is not hard to imagine that soon, John will find his work so meaningless and tiring to the point that he dreads even going to work. In this circumstance, the employer of John cannot be blamed either. Of course, the employer also feels that it is a waste of human resources, competent workers many of whom have a degree from prestigious universities. The employer is in a dilemma. That simple task has to be done by someone, and he cannot be confident in assigning such work to part-timers. Nevertheless, it is an awful waste when he thinks of the salary he pays John and for John's career, as well.
The same problem occurred in Google. Google decided to label images in order to provide customers with more accurate image searching service. Google would have to assign someone to do the exact same kind of work that John has been doing at 'ImageArchive'. It goes without saying that, of course, compared to a single film company, the number of images that has to be handled is several-fold. What is worse, the number is increasing exponentially. If Google is to complete this job, how many employees would have to be put into the work? Google, instead of deploying employees, implemented a creative, yet effective method to solve this issue. Google made a game, called 'Google Image Labeler', which everyone can easily participate and play a round. This game matches two random players online, and gives both players 1 minute 30 seconds to type in the explanation for a given picture. If two players enter the same word, they get one point. This game made use of a ranking system and showed the list of high score records. It would seem like people will not find such a simple game entertaining. On the contrary, by July 2006, 75,000 players had participated, and over 1.5 billion labels were put in. Of course, Google's image search service was greatly improved.
Work and Play ; Two separate worlds
'Work' is a productive behavior. Traditionally, work is creating results, and is often associated with responsibility and duty. Therefore, it is very difficult to do work and have fun at the same time. Most people consider work as something mandatory that you must perform in order to make a living. 'John', tolerating repetitive work, would not be an exception. On the other hand, play has existed for a long time on its own for its merits. Most people enjoy playing for entertainment and fun, thus carry them out without particular objective nor responsibility. It is rare that the results of play are utilized in productive ways. In this context, people have drawn a clear line between work and play. Of course, dancers, athletes and pro-gamers are just some examples of people who create value by transforming play into their living. In this case, their motive of behavior is also their responsibility and duty.
Imagine an employee named 'John', working in a film company called 'ImageArchive'. John's responsibility is labeling the pictures in accordance to its meaning, such as putting a label 'red car' or 'friendship'. Every day, John would go to work, examine hundreds of pictures and figure out what they depict, then label every single one of them. A person responsible for sub job would soon be tired and fed up with his task. It is not hard to imagine that soon, John will find his work so meaningless and tiring to the point that he dreads even going to work. In this circumstance, the employer of John cannot be blamed either. Of course, the employer also feels that it is a waste of human resources, competent workers many of whom have a degree from prestigious universities. The employer is in a dilemma. That simple task has to be done by someone, and he cannot be confident in assigning such work to part-timers. Nevertheless, it is an awful waste when he thinks of the salary he pays John and for John's career, as well.
The same problem occurred in Google. Google decided to label images in order to provide customers with more accurate image searching service. Google would have to assign someone to do the exact same kind of work that John has been doing at 'ImageArchive'. It goes without saying that, of course, compared to a single film company, the number of images that has to be handled is several-fold. What is worse, the number is increasing exponentially. If Google is to complete this job, how many employees would have to be put into the work? Google, instead of deploying employees, implemented a creative, yet effective method to solve this issue. Google made a game, called 'Google Image Labeler', which everyone can easily participate and play a round. This game matches two random players online, and gives both players 1 minute 30 seconds to type in the explanation for a given picture. If two players enter the same word, they get one point. This game made use of a ranking system and showed the list of high score records. It would seem like people will not find such a simple game entertaining. On the contrary, by July 2006, 75,000 players had participated, and over 1.5 billion labels were put in. Of course, Google's image search service was greatly improved.
Work and Play ; Two separate worlds
'Work' is a productive behavior. Traditionally, work is creating results, and is often associated with responsibility and duty. Therefore, it is very difficult to do work and have fun at the same time. Most people consider work as something mandatory that you must perform in order to make a living. 'John', tolerating repetitive work, would not be an exception. On the other hand, play has existed for a long time on its own for its merits. Most people enjoy playing for entertainment and fun, thus carry them out without particular objective nor responsibility. It is rare that the results of play are utilized in productive ways. In this context, people have drawn a clear line between work and play. Of course, dancers, athletes and pro-gamers are just some examples of people who create value by transforming play into their living. In this case, their motive of behavior is also their responsibility and duty.
The Exciting New World - Labortainment
As we can see in 'Labortainment Matrix', Google's achievement in transforming simple tasks into pure fun is astounding. Let's think back on employee, John of 'ImageArchive'. When jobs are perceived as mere responsibilities, the company is laden with great financial burden. Employees, also, will be greatly dissatisfied with the boring redundant work that has to be repeated from nine to five every single day. However, Google replaced 'work' with 'play'. by implementing an innovating mechanism. The participants enjoyed themselves, instead of being given overwhelming responsibilities. Google could cut back considerable amount of expense and improve the quality of searching in a short period of time. In this case, companies increase their productivity through the fun time that people have. Such a world would be an exciting place for all corporations.
If we take a close look at the procedure of replacing work with play, we can spot a promising business opportunity. The new business model that emerged with the Web2.0 era takes root in participation of the consumers and the users. The degree of consumer participation can determine the success of a business. In such an era, the important fact that must not be forgotten is that what solicits people's participation is 'fun'. Think of countless people around the world that think they are having a lot of fun, when they are actually doing work. Those people create great value and have fun at the same time as they translate contents from abroad, put in subtitles, add knowledge online and post reviews. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that is used worldwide, could not have developed without such users. As a matter of fact, according to a research, the reason why active users of Wikipedia posted a lot of contents was 'because it's fun'.
The moment you can transform something fun into work, you will experience magic that turn countless people around the world that pursue 'fun' into your employees. Such attempts are being made in diverse ways. For instance, as players solve various puzzles in the game 'Foldit', they are actually doing scientific research for possible protein structures. Knowledge about protein structures can be significant achievements to research and medical purposes.
As we can see in 'Labortainment Matrix', Google's achievement in transforming simple tasks into pure fun is astounding. Let's think back on employee, John of 'ImageArchive'. When jobs are perceived as mere responsibilities, the company is laden with great financial burden. Employees, also, will be greatly dissatisfied with the boring redundant work that has to be repeated from nine to five every single day. However, Google replaced 'work' with 'play'. by implementing an innovating mechanism. The participants enjoyed themselves, instead of being given overwhelming responsibilities. Google could cut back considerable amount of expense and improve the quality of searching in a short period of time. In this case, companies increase their productivity through the fun time that people have. Such a world would be an exciting place for all corporations.
If we take a close look at the procedure of replacing work with play, we can spot a promising business opportunity. The new business model that emerged with the Web2.0 era takes root in participation of the consumers and the users. The degree of consumer participation can determine the success of a business. In such an era, the important fact that must not be forgotten is that what solicits people's participation is 'fun'. Think of countless people around the world that think they are having a lot of fun, when they are actually doing work. Those people create great value and have fun at the same time as they translate contents from abroad, put in subtitles, add knowledge online and post reviews. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that is used worldwide, could not have developed without such users. As a matter of fact, according to a research, the reason why active users of Wikipedia posted a lot of contents was 'because it's fun'.
The moment you can transform something fun into work, you will experience magic that turn countless people around the world that pursue 'fun' into your employees. Such attempts are being made in diverse ways. For instance, as players solve various puzzles in the game 'Foldit', they are actually doing scientific research for possible protein structures. Knowledge about protein structures can be significant achievements to research and medical purposes.
Humans are innately born with the traits of Homo Ludens, beings that yearn for having fun. For a long time, play has fulfilled such desires of human beings. With the advancement of technology, humans' realm of play is increasingly becoming more abundant. With this in mind, it is your turn to demonstrate your creativity. Contemplate upon possible fun factors that will enable the customers to have fun and do work for you willingly, completely free of charge. There is skillful, free labor worldwide waiting, ready to do work for you.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Start!
Above all, I'm glad to post here today.
From today, I'd like to share a brilliant idea with you guys,
who have interest in what i think, 'Labortainment'.
Welcome to the new world.
I hope you guys explore together.
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