Day and Night Writer
I’m a web writer by day and a turk by night. I’m so new to turking that I just celebrated reaching the $5 milestone in earnings. I’ve been surprised by a couple of things about participating in Mechanical Turk. For one, I obsess about my quality percentage (knowing that a higher rating will bring me a shot at better assignments). I give my quality rating more attention than my earnings – which could explain why I’ve earned less than $10. Occasionally, I hit the submit button prematurely before completing the full assignment and wince when I consider what my error will do to my quality rating. Secondly, for my day job, I’ve needed to take the time to learn more about social networking, blogs, wikis, tweets, etc. I’ve been reluctant to take the time from what I deem to be “more serious” work to explore the newly evolving communication media. But, hey, pay me a dime and I’ll be happy to learn how to post to a blog, forum and even to whatever communication form this diary I’m writing now will take. I’m not surprised that I hand over my written work with no qualms about retaining copyright or without knowing if/when/where it will be posted. I think my day job as a web writer has taught me not to hang on to ownership of my work products. This fall, I will be working a part-time job on the weekend that is totally non-turkish. I’ll be outdoors, doing very low tech work that requires more stamina than creativity and brain power. It’s nice to know I can still turk when my schedule allows.
