The Tragedy of the Digital Commons

Workers on Mechanical Turk navigate a precariously free market with Turkopticon, a DIY technology for rating employers created in 2008. To use it, workers install a browser plugin that extends Amazon's website with special rating features. Before accepting a new task, workers check how others have rated the employer. After finishing, they can also leave their own rating of how well they were treated. Collective rating on Turkopticon is an act of citizenship in the digital world. This digital citizenship acknowledges that online experiences are as much a part of our common life as our schools, sidewalks, and rivers—requiring as much stewardship, vigilance, and improvement as anything else we share. “How do you fix a broken system that isn't yours to repair?” That’s the question that motivated the researchers Lily Irani and Six Silberman to create Turkopticon, and it’s one that comes up frequently in digital environments dominated by large platforms with hands-off policies.

[J. Nathan Matias researches technology for cooperation and civic life at the MIT Media Lab and Center for Civic Media.]