Wired has an interesting critical look at Amazon's highly publicized "Mechanical Turk" project that enlisted 50,000 volunteers in what ultimately proved a futile attempt to locate the missing plane of adventurer Steve Fossett.
Some now regret the time they spent eyeballing digital images, while others defend the effort as part of a technological learning curve.
At the very end of the piece, after one participant in the project suggests that there was no harm in trying as long as the amateurs didn't get in the way of the professional searchers, we get this most telling assessment:
Yet that is exactly what happened, much to the exasperation of Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan, who says her e-mail and voicemail boxes were flooded with leads from folks working on the Mechanical Turk. Many times, they mistook search aircraft in the air for Fossett's plane - even though it's unlikely Fossett's plane would have appeared intact.
"The crowdsourcing thing added a level of complexity that we didn't need, because 99.9999 percent of the people who were doing it didn't have the faintest idea what they're looking for," Ryan says.
"In the early days, it sounded like a good idea," Ryan continues. "In hindsight, I wish it hadn't been there, because it didn't produce a darn thing that was productive except for being a giant black hole for energy, time and resources. There may come a day when this technology is capable of doing what it says it can deliver, but boy, that's not now."
Crowds aren't always the fonts of wisdom that they're cracked up to be ... and they've always had the potential to be a bit unruly, even when well intentioned.
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Divsersion
"In the early days, it sounded like a good idea," Ryan continues. "In hindsight, I wish it hadn't been there, because it didn't produce a darn thing that was productive except for being a giant black hole for energy, time and resources."
It's a good thing we have experts, then. Otherwise Steve Fossett could still be missing.
Her blaming the crowds for email she read is unconvincing. First of all, she didn't have to read any emails, since that's not how Mechanical Turk works (she could have just looked at a spreadsheet of which squares were toggled).
More obviously, are we to believe there was no gofer underling to sort through the chaff emails while she did the real leadership? The article reeks of diversions from the real point:
The Nevada Civil Air Patrol failed its professional mission to find Steve Fossett.
You don't know what you're talking about.
First of all, Chief:
I did have to read lots and lots of emails from private individuals who somehow got my personal email address and just knew they had the crash site pegged on Google/MTurk. I was rather busy managing the world media, whose satellite trucks were parked out the front door of the command post. Too busy in fact to go checking the spreadsheets you mentioned. You have absolutely no idea what a monumental job I did wrangling all that media without once 'tripping' or hugely screwing up. Again. No pay. I'm a volunteer ... and btw the story is still going on and I'm still doing Fossett media work.
Second:
Being a volunteer for an all volunteer organization, no I didn't have some flunky that I could task to deal with all the MTurk stuff. But even with the Nevada Dept of Emergency Services and the Air Guard whose PIOs were my assistants, they were also getting slammed in the same manner, and no, they didn't have the personnel resources available to help them either, Chief.
Third:
You weren't paying attention, Nimrod. If our search capabilities were so damn inept, how was it we found six unregistered crash sites? You also weren't paying attention to the fact that the Hilton people brought in hundreds of ground pounders and 10 (ten) helicopters on flats to the ranch and scoured the same territory from the ground to 500' agl and FOUND NOTHING.
This doesn't even begin to cover some of the current conjecture that he never actually took off, and that there just might be some sort of funny business to this whole circus.
Too bad I'm legally bound to not let you in on all the current details, which are so bizarre ... well, you just can't make shit like this up.
So next time you want to show us all what an expert you are in the art and science of search or in being a PIO/MIO for a huge incident...come join the Nevada Wing CAP and I'll step back and watch.
Lt Col Cynthia S Ryan
National CAP Public Affairs Advisor
Nevada Wing PAO
Member of the Nevada Office of Emergency Management JIC
and a whole lot more stuff like that. Strains credibility that I could have possibly known what I was doing, right?
I ought to post this on your comment on Wired, too.
Oh, yes and you'll note that I got promoted to Lt Col. They do that for a job badly done. And I got the Exceptional Service medal too. And invitations to be guest speaker all over the country. Maybe other people don't agree with you. Hmmm?
and one other comment
...and I hadn't replied before now, because my life has been so consumed by this damn search for the celebrity and the media attention it attracts, that I've just now had time to look around the net and see stupid crap like your post.
Cynthia Ryan