Comments on: Jonathan Zittrain’s “Minds For Sale” and Ubiquitous Human Computing http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=1095 Ethical Reflections On Modern Technology Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:42:56 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: Dmeyers http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=1095&cpage=1#comment-374 Dmeyers Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:43:42 +0000 http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=1095#comment-374 I find the content in this post quiet thought-provoking from a legal stand-point. Liveops.com seems to be a technologically-driven shortcut around minimum wage laws and employment contracts. Among other things, it is based on the exploitation of a loophole in American employee rights laws. With Liveops (and to a lesser degree Amazon’s Mechanical Turks) employees are sporadically employed while observing little or no employee rights – no severance package, no bonus system, no minimum wage laws, no mandatory 15 minute breaks, no overtime or holiday payment system, no Equal Opportunity Act. Yet, somehow it doesn’t even seem like Liveops really needs to be held to the same standard as other employers in America. Liveops is a legitimate business that works to employee people, yet there doesn’t seem to be a need to hold them to the same employer standard that all the other businesses in the US are held to. Why is this? Maybe the answer is because it is a mediator between employer and employee, rather than an actual employer in itself. Maybe because it is so new and advanced of a technology that lawmakers have yet to discover its potentially malignant side-effects. While the answer may not be cut and dry, it does identify a problem on the horizon for those in the legal and legislative field. What other legal issues are on the horizon, spurred by the rampant advancement in technology? I find the content in this post quiet thought-provoking from a legal stand-point. Liveops.com seems to be a technologically-driven shortcut around minimum wage laws and employment contracts. Among other things, it is based on the exploitation of a loophole in American employee rights laws. With Liveops (and to a lesser degree Amazon’s Mechanical Turks) employees are sporadically employed while observing little or no employee rights – no severance package, no bonus system, no minimum wage laws, no mandatory 15 minute breaks, no overtime or holiday payment system, no Equal Opportunity Act. Yet, somehow it doesn’t even seem like Liveops really needs to be held to the same standard as other employers in America. Liveops is a legitimate business that works to employee people, yet there doesn’t seem to be a need to hold them to the same employer standard that all the other businesses in the US are held to. Why is this? Maybe the answer is because it is a mediator between employer and employee, rather than an actual employer in itself. Maybe because it is so new and advanced of a technology that lawmakers have yet to discover its potentially malignant side-effects. While the answer may not be cut and dry, it does identify a problem on the horizon for those in the legal and legislative field. What other legal issues are on the horizon, spurred by the rampant advancement in technology?

]]> By: mconway http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=1095&cpage=1#comment-210 mconway Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:22:53 +0000 http://thetechnologicalcitizen.com/?p=1095#comment-210 It is interesting to ponder the future based upon these innovations Zittrain discusses... People, in these times, are being treated less like individuals and more like tools or "cogs" to achieve an end. Long gone are the days in which job security was assured for most workers. As Zittrain explores the idea of "mechanical turks," we are confronted with the morals of anonymity and how alienation of information can subjugate workers into supporting immoral goals. He brings up valid points, yet now at the time of recession, easy money for those struggling to find employment is appealing and many will find solace in the ignorance anonymity provides. In regards to LiveOps, such technological advances are characteristic ventures of a growing global community. Although its implications sound alarming and potentially "mechanic," we cannot disregard the benefits to stay at home/single parents. My mom works from home as a legal accountant and its benefits to myself and the rest of my family has been resounding. I do agree that the example of traveling on a subway train or answering a drive order on a park bench in Montana for a Jack in the Box in Colorado is chilling, it is apart of the ascent towards McLuhan's "global village." Its inevitability is real, and although its potential mechanization of human interaction is different, it is something to which Zittrain says we must question and alter now or forever conform to its consequences. It is interesting to ponder the future based upon these innovations Zittrain discusses… People, in these times, are being treated less like individuals and more like tools or “cogs” to achieve an end. Long gone are the days in which job security was assured for most workers. As Zittrain explores the idea of “mechanical turks,” we are confronted with the morals of anonymity and how alienation of information can subjugate workers into supporting immoral goals. He brings up valid points, yet now at the time of recession, easy money for those struggling to find employment is appealing and many will find solace in the ignorance anonymity provides.

In regards to LiveOps, such technological advances are characteristic ventures of a growing global community. Although its implications sound alarming and potentially “mechanic,” we cannot disregard the benefits to stay at home/single parents. My mom works from home as a legal accountant and its benefits to myself and the rest of my family has been resounding. I do agree that the example of traveling on a subway train or answering a drive order on a park bench in Montana for a Jack in the Box in Colorado is chilling, it is apart of the ascent towards McLuhan’s “global village.” Its inevitability is real, and although its potential mechanization of human interaction is different, it is something to which Zittrain says we must question and alter now or forever conform to its consequences.

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