Abstract
External crowdworking (CW) is paid online work mediated by specialised crowdsourcing platforms. This chapter provides an introduction to various aspects of crowdworking with a focus on German-language platforms, based on the literature and our own results from the ‘Digital Future’ research programme. We define CW as an employment relationship and distinguish it from other forms of (non-)regular employment. Findings from a survey among crowdworkers show that crowdworkers are heterogeneous in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, and that the consequences of CW for health and work-life balance are ambivalent. Various platforms that broker complex tasks have developed a new type of rating system that commits workers to the platform. Based on crowdworkers’ past performance record, they achieve a particular status level, such as ‘five stars’, which indicates a worker’s reputation and determines the pay they can expect, as well as the tasks they can take on. Such rating-based compensation systems rely on a digital twin of each crowdworker that is stored by the platform. Today, such systems are platform-specific and proprietary, with a possible lock-in effect for employees. Public rating systems that cover multiple platforms are an alternative that would enable workers to transfer their reputation to other platforms. Overall, this chapter sheds light on an important but still under-researched form of flexible online work and illustrates that a novel form of the human digital twin is at the heart of platform management, with controversial implications for workers.
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Hemsen, P., Reimann, M., Schneider, M. (2023). Digital Twins in Flexible Online Work: Crowdworkers on German-Language Platforms. In: Gräßler, I., Maier, G.W., Steffen, E., Roesmann, D. (eds) The Digital Twin of Humans. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26104-6_12
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