Amazon's Mechanical Turk lets you make $$$, sort of

Like me, there are a lot of people who fantasize about making extra money in their spare time. We've all seen the "earn cash while you work from home" flyers taped to the street posts but there's always a hitch, like the need to pay $500 up front to get the materials to start working.

So, when I heard about Amazon's Mechanical Turk business opportunity, my interest was piqued. It's one of Amazon's Web Services in which it offers things like infrastructure, computing power and storage on an outsource basis to start-ups. With Mechanical Turk, companies that have small computer-based tasks can get quick access to a large labor pool.

The service is named after an 18th century mechanical chess-playing device housed in a wooden mannequin decked out in Turkish garb, built by a Hungarian nobleman. Naive spectators were told that the machine made decisions using artificial intelligence, when in actuality a chess master hidden inside actually did the thinking.

At Amazon, anyone with a computer and Internet access can serve as the human intelligence behind all sorts of tasks that computers can't perform on their own. The Web site promises a way to make easy money: "Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it--Choose from thousands of tasks, control when you work, and decide how much you earn."

I liked the sound of that, so I decided to try it out.

I dove right in with an assignment that requires you to look at photographs taken of roadways and identify lamp posts and drains on the side of the road. Easy enough, I thought, but I guess I didn't read the instructions very carefully and found myself clicking away for naught. I realized my mistake--you have to click on each of the photos in sequence before tagging the items--and I was on my way. Basically, I was looking at rain-drenched highways that looked like they were taken in England. I had to click on the drains, some of which were difficult to see when obscured by puddles, and draw lines on the lamp posts. Once I got going I was pleased with my fast-paced clip, but realized that anyone with repetitive stress injury in their wrists could never do this task, as it entails a lot of mouse work.

I also learned that doing "work from home" projects at the office is not such a good idea. I kept getting distracted by work, e-mails and instant messages that required my attention given that I was still on the clock, and by well-meaning co-workers, offering me gum and wanting to chit chat. "Please don't disturb me, I'm earning money in my spare time," I told them with a chuckle.

To Join Amazon's Mechanical Turk Click here