Document:Q10123

The Mechanical Olympics is a YouTube video competition of Olympic performances made by the elastic workforce on Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk website. Every viewer gets a chance to vote on the gold medalists. Winners receive a bonus payment. Three videos were commissioned for each event and event polls change daily on this interactive alternative to the Olympic Games.
The rules are simple: workers have to wear the Mechanical Olympic signage, perform for the country and event described in the HIT (Human Intelligence Task) they accept, and create a 30 - 60 second video of their performance. Any abstraction on the idea of the event is encouraged. They post the URL to their video, and in return, they are paid from $1 - $3 usd.
This project aims to offer the human intelligence task (HIT) workers a creative and physical alternative to their typical HITs. The videos posted on the blog create an Olympic event for the masses, where every viewer has the opportunity to vote on the medalists. Participants and viewers are reminded that the amateur can often be just as engaging and entertaining as the professional.