10/05/2006

Qual-Snatching on Mechanical Turk

Can companies borrow other Requester's Qualifications to perform their own HITs? Technically, yes. But is this how the system should work? Isn't the time spent defining your workforce part of your selling proposition, and shouldn't you be able to protect that?

Right now, only a few firms have bothered to define qualifications for the tasks they need performed. For the most part, these companies are in very different fields, without much overlap. But one can see where this is going.

For example, I've done a few search marketing projects that involved websites in other languages. So it was with keen interest that I spotted the translator qualifications set-up by von Kempelen.

At the moment, I don't have any needs in this area. But you'd have to wonder - and this is a direct solicitation for feedback :) - what vK would think if I borrowed a vK qualification for a few translation HITs of my own.

Is "qual-snatching" unprofessional? Just plain rude? Or is it part of the open architecture that will ultimately make Mturk a great tool for anyone who wants to get anything done?

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