Mobile crowdsourcing: four experiments on platforms and tasks

• Published in: Distributed and parallel databases : an international journal Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 123 - 141
• Main Authors: Della Mea, Vincenzo, Maddalena, Eddy, Mizzaro, Stefano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01-03-2015
• Subjects: Computer Science; Data Structures; Database Management; Heuristic; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Memory Structures; Mobile communication systems; Operating Systems; Platforms; Spamming; Tasks; Crowdsourcing platforms; Mobile devices
• ISSN: 0926-8782; 1573-7578
• DOI: 10.1007/s10619-014-7162-x

We study whether the tasks currently proposed on crowdsourcing platforms are adequate to mobile devices. We aim at understanding both (i) which crowdsourcing platforms, among the existing ones, are more adequate to mobile devices, and (ii) which kinds of tasks are more adequate to mobile devices. Results of four diversified experiments (three user studies and one heuristic evaluation) hint that: some crowdsourcing platforms seem more adequate to mobile devices than others; some inadequacy issues seem rather superficial and can be resolved by a better task design; some kinds of tasks are more adequate than others; there might be some unexpected opportunities with mobile devices; and spam on the requester side should be taken into account.