On 5/30/07, Slim Virgin wrote:
Yeah, people who feel it is implausible that a
person could hit a button
5-10 times a minute for hours on end with reasonable quality control
have apparently not ever had a modern manufacturing job.
I doubt that anyone with a modern manufacturing job
would do it
without pay, William.
Somewhat tangentially, but relevant, I think... is what some sociologists are referring to
as the "AOL effect". For years, AOL used unpaid "Community Leaders"
in a massive capacity to host chat areas, patrol user boards, host and guide tours of the
service, etc. Arguably, these volunteers actually created the feeling of community that
made AOL work (at least in the early years). AOL was able to use the power of
contributing to community to get volunteers to do work that it may not have been cost
effective to use internal employees for. In some cases, volunteers amassed huge numbers
of hours in return for (at first) free dial up access. Toward the end the free access
wasn't such a big deal anymore because of unlimited connection times for one monthly
fee, and AOL braced themselves for the inevitable exodus of Community Leaders.... which
didn't happen.
People were willing to work - yes, real work with schedules and some pretty crappy jobs -
in exchange for little more than the recognition of their work as Community Leaders.
AOL had some interesting interactions with the Labor Department over it (though I
don't recall that it ever actually went anywhere), but the lesson that was driven home
was that given a large enough user base, you'll find folks to do just about anything,
if you tell them they're a leader.
Again, certainly not a direct comparison, but an interesting tangential aside.
Philippe