Mechanical Turk app on the iPhone Provides Work for Refugees

Mechanical Turk service provider CrowdFlower^† and microwork non-profit Samasource have teamed up to make their services available to iPhone users. Users of CrowdFlower's mechanical turk platform can now opt to send their tasks to iPhone users. Previously, CrowdFlower users could choose between Amazon mechanical turks or CrowdFlower's stable of turks.

The Give Work iPhone app takes tasks (created by real companies) and sends it to iPhone users who volunteer to complete them. Meanwhile, workers in a Kenyan refugee camp perform the same tasks using CrowdFlower's regular web interface. In essence, Kenyan refugees work to increase the accuracy of the results provided by the army of volunteer iPhone mechanical turks. In a previous post on Mechanical Turk Best Practices, I highlighted recent research that suggested that for a large set of tasks, the aggregate work of 4-6 turks compare favorably with a single (domain) expert.

The payment for tasks sent to CrowdFlower's iPhone app goes entirely to the workers in the Kenyan refugee camp. In addition, Samasource has negotiated with money transfer services, so the payment goes through with zero transaction costs.

The turks in the refugee camps are recent graduates of Samasource's computer training program. Rather than sitting idly while they wait to be employed, they earn money performing simple computer tasks for real companies. On the other hand, Give Work app users volunteer to perform simple tasks on their iPhone knowing that refugees in Africa are benefiting. CrowdFlower founder Lukas Biewald notes that their work with Samasource opens up their platform to companies who want to tap into and help micro-workers in developing countries.

There are other mechanical turk services that employ workers in developing countries (see for example txteagle). What distinguishes CrowdFlower is an innovative web interface that lets companies easily upload/define their projects and choose the set of turks they want to use: Amazon, CrowdFlower, and now iPhone users + Kenyan refugees. CrowdFlower has many other features worth noting including analytics and reporting, tools to increase accuracy, and a services team that works with companies interested in custom solutions.

When I talk to companies about using mechanical turks, many are still unaware^†† of what they even are, and most don't quite know how to use them. In our work, we routinely use turks to build machine-learning training sets, and for tasks that require the levels of accuracy that algorithms are unable to deliver. Thanks to companies like CrowdFlower, it's now really easy for companies to dip their toes, and experiment with integrating mechanical turks. And with the launch of their Give Work iPhone app, companies can simultaneously opt to provide income to workers in developing countries.

(†) We are users of CrowdFlower's mechanical turk platform.
(††) Actually nervous laughter is a common response!

Four short links: 1 October 2009

Objectivity Be Gone, Public Screens, Lobbying Patterns, DIY Africa

1. The End of Objectivity, Web2.0 Version -- Our behaviour as journalists is now measurable. And measurability gives the lie to the pretence that journalists behave like scientists, impartially observing the petri dish of society. (via Pia Waugh)
2. Screens in Context -- ideas for the video screens spring up in place of billboards. Whilst the advertising industry has one of the longest histories of trying to understand interaction, it’s a very different set of tools that digitalness brings; ones that designers at the coal face of web and mobile encounter every day. Everything can be considered in context, be timely, reactive, and data-driven. I’m going to try to outline some dimensions to think about, with some incredibly quick, simple, off the cuff dumb ideas [...] The technology to achieve some of these may be over and above what is possible now, but the biggest step - installing powered, networked computers in the real world - is already being taken by advertising media companies.
3. Interactive Network Map of Lobbying Patterns Around Key Senators in Health Care Reform -- fascinating visualization of political activity, via timoreilly on Twitter)
4. The Doers Club -- How DIY design gave a teenager from Malawi electricity, and can help transform Africa.

Mobile Banks in the Developing World Prove Simpler is Better

Recent initiatives designed to make U.S. consumer financial products simpler and intelligible to customers, reminds me of a study we did on Mobile Banks^† in the developing world. Designed to work on the simplest mobile devices and originally targeting the unbanked, mobile banks evolved from simple services (transfer of mobile air time) to become widely used money-transfer and mobile payment systems. In the Philippines, over $100M flows through the GCASH system daily. GCASH and rival SmartMoney are accepted in establishments that take credit cards, giving the unbanked the ability to conduct cashless transactions, a benefit previously limited to credit card customers. In Kenya, the number of transactions that flow through M-PESA is comparable to the number of all ATM transactions in the country.

A key observation we gleaned when we studied Mobile Banks in the developing world is that the most successful services not only have easy-to-use products with low transaction fees, the terms and fees involved are spelled out clearly. The financial products they offer are by design easy for consumers to understand. A recent CGAP survey found that 1 in 6 mobile banking users in the Philippines previously had traditional bank accounts, and 7 in 10 viewed mobile banking services as easy to use.

Among other things, the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency will work to ensure "... consumers get information that is clear and concise, and to prevent the worst kinds of abuses." It's unfortunate that large financial services companies have to be strong-armed into simpler offerings, when there is a large market for such products. Fortunately smaller companies aren't waiting for regulatory changes and are beginning to offer simpler products.

There's more to the successful mobile banks than meets the eye, some of the large players have become world-class financial services providers. While it's technically easy to roll out a rudimentary mobile payment system, the most successful mobile banks in the developing world use complex software systems that handle more (near) real-time transactions than traditional banking systems. Unecumbered by legacy software systems, business rules and practices, mobile banks are innovating at a much faster pace than traditional financial services companies. At the height of the banking crisis, Clayton Christensen offered the following advice to JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: "Go to the developing world and buy a phone company!" Not surprisingly, traditional banks in the developing world are eagerly forging alliances with fast-growing mobile banks. GCASH has agreements with several Philippine banks allowing fund transfers (and other forms of inter-operability) between their customers.

Over the long-term, mobile banks have, in many countries, become the first step^†† towards financial inclusion. Once unbanked consumers get comfortable using mobile banks, they become more likely to adopt other products such as micro-insurance and (micro) loans.

In a recent survey article, I discuss in detail the profound impact mobile banks have had in the developing world, as well as some of the main challenges they face. But let me highlight the following statistic from a recent CGAP survey of M-PESA users in Kenya: the income of rural recipients increased 30% since they started using M-PESA.

(†) Insiders like to distinguish between mobile banking (mobile phone access to existing bank customers) and mobile banks (financial institutions that arose with mobile phones).
(††) Moving into the realm of science-fiction, some technocrats in Japan recently "speculated" that mobile payment services could open the door towards eliminating cash altogether.

Four short links: 4 May 2009

Maps, Africa, Protein, and Rockets

1. Old Japanese Maps on Google Earth Unveil Secrets -- Google criticised for putting up map layers showing the towns where a discriminated-against class came from, because that class is still discriminated against and Google didn't put any "cultural context" around it. Google and their maps didn't make the underclass, Japanese society did. Because they're sensitive about having the problem, they redirect their embarrassment into anger at Google. You could make a long and profitable career in IT consulting simply by charging to say "it's not a technical problem" and you'd be right more times than wrong.
2. See Africa Differently -- using the Internet to reframe a continent. Videos, essays, and more, all designed to get you seeing the majority of Africa, which isn't defined by conflict and famine. (via NY Times book review)
3. Fold.it - Solve Puzzles for Science -- science harnesses our "cognitive surplus" by inviting us to help solve the problem of protein folding, one of the hardest in biology. (via auckland_museum on Twitter)
4. Arduino Telemetry Payload in Class C Rocket (Jon Oxer) -- Because class-C rockets are so small and light they can't lift much of a payload and I had to keep the mass of the electronics as small as possible. You can get a sense of scale from this photo which shows a small white bundle in the bottom of the nosecone. Inside that bundle is an Arduino Pro Mini 5V/16Mhz, a 433Mhz transmitter module, and a Lilypad 3-axis accelerometer. PCBs ... in ... Spaaaaace!

BarCamp Nairobi Technology Survey

BarCamp Nairobi took place this past weekend and several bloggers estimated that there were over two hundred participants. As part of BarCamp, Erik Hersman, kindly conducted a simple survey for us. In this short post, I will give a brief summary of the results of the survey. For more details on BarCamp Nairobi, consult Erik's blog and flickr pages.

The goal of the short survey was to get a feel for the technologies favored by the attendees. Of the 52 completed surveys, 21 respondents (40%) cited php as one of their primary programming languages.

27 (or 52%) cited one of the common scripting languages (perl, python, php, ruby). The fact that c# was more popular than python, ruby, and perl, is probably indicative of the local IT job market as well. Windows and Linux garnered almost the same number of users:

In a previous post, I mentioned a paper Erik wrote that outlines the importance of cell phones in Africa (“Africa’s PC”). Not suprisingly more than half the BarCamp attendees develop for mobile phone platforms: 27 responded Yes (52%) when asked whether they do any mobile phone application development. At the end of the camp, one of the mobile phone app developers was interviewed by a reporter for the NY Times.

The results of the survey are available as a Google Doc.

Africa's Energy Deficit: Energy Hacks Can Make A Difference

About six weeks ago I came across this quote from a Wall Street Journal article and I have been pondering it ever since:

Africa has the capacity to generate about 63 gigawatts of power for roughly 770 million people -- about what Spain produces for its population of 40 million. For most African countries, the World Bank estimates that universal access to electricity is at least 50 years away. But these days, even the few who have come to expect electricity are finding it increasingly difficult to come by -- or afford.

The article goes on to emphasize that the situation varies considerably from country to country, with internal conflicts and lack of investment among the primary reasons for low energy generation capacity in several countries. As India and China steadily modernize, we get constant reminders that they are going to be huge consumers of energy resources. The quote above is a reminder that large portions of Africa could eventually be major consumers of energy as well.

A reliable African energy infrastructure is necessary to attract large amounts of foreign direct investments. Electricity is vital in powering factories, offices, schools, hospitals, and other public services. While a modern infrastructure may be years away, there are “energy hacks” that can have tremendous impact over the short-term. One just needs to note the importance of cell phones in most African countries. Mobile phones have the added benefit that they can be easily powered using distributed renewable technologies.

At the recent Where 2.0 conference, Erik Hersman pointed to a paper he wrote that outlines the importance of cell phones in Africa (“Africa’s PC”) while highlighting software application areas (“search, news, community”) that could prove popular on the continent. Mobile phone initiatives similar to Grameen Phone’s Village Phone and Community Information Center could also be high-impact projects in Africa.

No doubt full-scale modernization requires the large energy infrastructure projects that take years to fund and build. Rather than get discouraged, I look to the work of people like Joel Selanikio (click here for details). Public health initiatives like Joel's have demonstrated that simple mobile devices go a long way towards improving the lives of the poorest people in the world.