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Tag: crowdsourcing

  • The Low-Paid Humans Behind AI’s Smarts Ask Biden to Free Them From ‘Modern Day Slavery’

    The Low-Paid Humans Behind AI’s Smarts Ask Biden to Free Them From ‘Modern Day Slavery’

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    AI projects like OpenAI’s ChatGPT get part of their savvy from some of the lowest-paid workers in the tech industry—contractors often in poor countries paid small sums to correct chatbots and label images. On Wednesday, 97 African workers who do AI training work or online content moderation for companies like Meta and OpenAI published an open letter to President Biden, demanding that US tech companies stop “systemically abusing and exploiting African workers.”

    Most of the letter’s signatories are from Kenya, a hub for tech outsourcing, whose president, William Ruto, is visiting the US this week. The workers allege that the practices of companies like Meta, OpenAI, and data provider Scale AI “amount to modern day slavery.” The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    A typical workday for African tech contractors, the letter says, involves “watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day.” Pay is often less than $2 per hour, it says, and workers frequently end up with post-traumatic stress disorder, a well-documented issue among content moderators around the world.

    The letter’s signatories say their work includes reviewing content on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, as well as labeling images and training chatbot responses for companies like OpenAI that are developing generative-AI technology. The workers are affiliated with the African Content Moderators Union, the first content moderators union on the continent, and a group founded by laid-off workers who previously trained AI technology for companies such as Scale AI, which sells datasets and data-labeling services to clients including OpenAI, Meta, and the US military. The letter was published on the site of the UK-based activist group Foxglove, which promotes tech-worker unions and equitable tech.

    In March, the letter and news reports say, Scale AI abruptly banned people based in Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan from working on Remotasks, Scale AI’s platform for contract work. The letter says that these workers were cut off without notice and are “owed significant sums of unpaid wages.”

    “When Remotasks shut down, it took our livelihoods out of our hands, the food out of our kitchens,” says Joan Kinyua, a member of the group of former Remotasks workers, in a statement to WIRED. “But Scale AI, the big company that ran the platform, gets away with it, because it’s based in San Francisco.”

    Though the Biden administration has frequently described its approach to labor policy as “worker-centered.” The African workers’ letter argues that this has not extended to them, saying “we are treated as disposable.”

    “You have the power to stop our exploitation by US companies, clean up this work and give us dignity and fair working conditions,” the letter says. “You can make sure there are good jobs for Kenyans too, not just Americans.”

    Tech contractors in Kenya have filed lawsuits in recent years alleging that tech-outsourcing companies and their US clients such as Meta have treated workers illegally. Wednesday’s letter demands that Biden make sure that US tech companies engage with overseas tech workers, comply with local laws, and stop union-busting practices. It also suggests that tech companies “be held accountable in the US courts for their unlawful operations aboard, in particular for their human rights and labor violations.”

    The letter comes just over a year after 150 workers formed the African Content Moderators Union. Meta promptly laid off all of its nearly 300 Kenya-based content moderators, workers say, effectively busting the fledgling union. The company is currently facing three lawsuits from more than 180 Kenyan workers, demanding more humane working conditions, freedom to organize, and payment of unpaid wages.

    “Everyone wants to see more jobs in Kenya,” Kauna Malgwi, a member of the African Content Moderators Union steering committee, says. “But not at any cost. All we are asking for is dignified, fairly paid work that is safe and secure.”

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    Caroline Haskins

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  • Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’

    Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’

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    Our goal is to combine both approaches—to run a moderation service that tries to provide a baseline and to also have an open ecosystem where anyone who wants to innovate can come in and start building. I think this is particularly useful around cases where information is really fast moving and there’s specialized knowledge. There are organizations out there already in the business of fact-checking, or figuring out if a verified account is actually a politician or not. They can start annotating and putting that information into the network, and we can build off that collective intelligence.

    Recently there was a very high-profile incident on X where deepfake porn of Taylor Swift started spreading and the platform was not super prompt at clamping down. What’s your approach to moderating deepfakes?

    From the start we’ve been using some AI-detection services—image labeling services—but this is an area where there’s a lot of innovation and we’ve been looking at other alternatives.

    This is also where a third-party labeling system could really come into use. We can move faster as an open collective of people—she has lots of fans who could help identify content like this very proactively.

    What are the benefits of federation—where a social network is decentralized, consisting of a bunch of independent servers instead of one central hub—for the casual internet user?

    The goals here are to give developers the freedom to build, and users the right to leave. The ability for people to host their own data means that users always have other alternatives, and that their experience doesn’t have to just come from us. For example, if a user wants to try a wholly different app, or a whole different experience, or they want to move to a parallel social network.

    If someone was to use your protocol and build, say, a Taylor Swift deepfake porn community, is there anything you could do to stop that?

    With the open web model, someone can always put their own website on the internet, but it doesn’t have to be indexed. We’re also playing a role in surfacing and indexing content. For really bad stuff out there, we’re trying to make sure that it never gets shown, by de-promoting it and not connecting to it.

    Can you explain your business model?

    We really think that money follows value. There’s been skepticism that this whole model of social can work. People are even wondering what it is. So, first of all, we’re trying to prove that this ecosystem has value to users and developers, and that it can kick off an era of open innovation.

    From there, we’re going to monetize while following our values. Early on, Twitter was very open and everyone built on it. But then they shut down at some point, right? They turned into much more of a platform, and less something that looked like a protocol.

    Our whole approach is getting back to protocols, not platforms, and there are certain guarantees that we’ve built into the protocol. It’s locked open. Once we have proven out this approach, I think there’s lots of ways that money is going to flow through the ecosystem. We’re going to start exploring some of those models this year.

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    Kate Knibbs

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  • Is Crowdfunding Still Viable In Today’s Market?

    Is Crowdfunding Still Viable In Today’s Market?

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    At the beginning of August, CrowdStreet CEO Tore Steen stepped down amid fire after more than $50 million went missing, as reported in Bisnow. The funds had been raised for deals in Atlanta and Miami by New York real estate firm Nightingale Properties, and they never closed. Both the Atlanta and Miami entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, per Bisnow.

    The recent events raise questions over whether sponsors should consider raising money through crowdsourcing platforms such as CrowdStreet. When evaluating the options, it’s important to note that there are different structures, and some cater to accredited investors while others accept non-accredited investors. The way funds are raised on platforms can vary too. While certain crowdfunding sites enable sponsors to have direct contact with investors, others keep the relationship anonymous.

    Looking at the bigger picture, crowdfunding has been on the rise in recent years. Leading platforms have raised significant amounts. CrowdStreet, for instance, has funded more than 750 deals with over $4 billion invested.

    Given the recent events, however, it’s important to note that clearly, there will be some challenges ahead as investors grow concerned over the legitimacy of these tools. Sponsors may want to make sure that the funding of their deal is not fully reliant on a crowdfunding raise. It’s also more crucial than ever to carry out due diligence before making an investment.

    A starting point could be to check if the platform is open to accredited investors or non-accredited investors. In this article, we’ll look at the difference between these categories, and consider how crowdfunding has opened avenues for non-accredited investors. In the following article, we’ll cover crowdsourcing options for accredited investors.

    Accredited and Non-Accredited Investors

    Historically, real estate investments have often been limited to accredited investors. To qualify as an accredited investor, certain criteria must be met. This consists of having a net worth of more than $1 million excluding the primary residence, or an income of more than $200,000 individually or $300,000 as a couple during each of the past two years with an expectation to continue with the same salary in the current year, according to the SEC.

    In recent years, crowdfunding has changed this concept, with some platforms opening the gates to larger pools of investors who are non-accredited. These individuals will have a net worth of less than $1 million excluding their home and earn an income of less than $200,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple during the previous two years.

    The SEC has certain investing guidelines for non-accredited investors. If their annual income or net worth is less than $107,000, the investment limit is either $2,200 or 5% of their annual income or net worth, whichever is greater. If both the annual income and net worth are $107,000 or more, the limit is the greater of 10% of their annual income or net worth, up to $107,000.

    Crowdfunding for Non-Accredited Investors

    Some of the well-known platforms for non-accredited investors include RealtyMogul, Yieldstreet, and DiversyFund, and Fundrise, as mentioned in Nerd Wallet. Other options are GROUNDFLOOR, Roofstock, and Small Change. These sites are always changing, so you’ll want to check the latest updates and reviews before moving forward with an investment.

    When I interviewed Jamison Manwaring on my podcast, “The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing,” he shared his passion to give opportunities to a broader audience. Jamison is the co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Ventures, a crowdfunding platform which is open to non-accredited investors with starting amounts as low as $1,000 for multifamily.

    In addition to navigating the ample regulation in crowdfunding, Jamison noted the importance of educating investors and developing trust. “It doesn’t matter if the check is $1,000 or $1 million—people look at it the same,” he said. When breaking into crowdfunding, he and his partner agreed to try raising $500,000 that they needed for a deal via online, rather than tapping friends. Through the process, they learned that investors were looking for consistent returns and structured the plan accordingly. “In four weeks we funded the whole project,” he explained.

    The Intricacies of a Crowdfunding App

    Janine Yorio, the CEO of Everyrealm who served as the head of real estate at Republic, joined my podcast to discuss her experience and background in the crowdfunding space. Republic enables non-accredited investors to participate with venture capitalists for as little as $50. Prior to her time there, Janine spent years building and running a fintech app called Compound which was acquired by Republic in 2020.

    On the show, Janine discussed the significant upfront investment needed to build the app and get approval for it. During this time, she and her partner carried out marketing efforts to inform investors of their options. Once the app was in place, individuals jumped at the chance to contribute as little as $100. More than 4,000 participated in the first investment, and $450,000 was raised through the app. “We never talked to people on the phone,” Janine shared on my podcast. “It was all through the app and fully automated.”

    Janine’s crowdfunding app was used for projects in places like Miami, Nashville and Austin, with an eye for locations that were booming. “We wanted to make it so you could invest passively in a downtown urban core,” she shared. “Real estate is the world’s largest asset class…the more we can increase the ownership and improve what that looks like, the more people can invest and play alongside the big players.”

    Ultimately, those who want to use crowdfunding to raise funds could find opportunities, though investor demand may drop given the recent fallout. In addition, there are many legal complexities to follow, and you’ll need an attorney to help you sort through them. New investors may be well suited to begin with a partner who has access to other sources of funding while building a track record.

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    James Nelson, Contributor

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  • Steam’s Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    Steam’s Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

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    As we’ve been covering, things are not going well over on Reddit at the moment, with the site’s ownership currently engaged in a running battle with readers and moderators. Users are so annoyed at attempts to monetise the site that they’re working through a variety of protests, but one of the larger gaming subreddits—r/steam, with 1.9 million subscribers—is now my favourite.

    The Top Ten Most Played Games On Steam Deck: March 2023 Edition

    We’ve seen blackouts, we’ve seen sites toggle their settings to NSFW (thus cutting off ad revenue), but r/steam—whose mods were threatened with removal if they didn’t reopen the subreddit after an initial blackout—has decided as a community that if they had to reopen, they were going to reopen with a purpose.

    And that purpose, as PC Gamer point out, was to become the internet’s top destination for all things steam-related. And by that I don’t mean the PC’s preferred shopfront and launcher, but steam engines. Steam clouds. Steam tractors, steam-driven cars and academic books about steam.

    Here, for example, is a classic “rate my setup” post, emphasis on classic:

    Image for article titled Steam's Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    In this post, a user has an important technical question they’re hoping the community can answer:

    Image for article titled Steam's Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    Just because there’s a protest going on doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to celebrate:

    Image for article titled Steam's Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    Like most gaming subreddits, users are sometimes overcome with nostalgia, and like to reminisce about the good old days:

    Image for article titled Steam's Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    Here’s a reminder that Reddit only exists as it does today because it’s a place where users can teach, learn and hang out with other human beings for free:

    Image for article titled Steam's Subreddit Is Running An Excellent Protest

    While this maybe isn’t the most effective form of protest—with users still generating content, anyone viewing r/steam on the company’s official mobile app will still be served ads, which is the whole reason they’re trying to squeeze third-party applications out in the first place—if you’re going to settle into a protest for the long-run, you may as well have some fun with it.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Reddit Is Removing Mods Over NSFW Protests

    Reddit Is Removing Mods Over NSFW Protests

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    Image: Reddit

    In the wake of sitewide protests, ostensibly over some API changes but really about an increasingly corporate squeeze of a historically community-run site, some Reddit moderators have decided to hit CEO Steve Huffman in the only place it seems to hurt: the site’s wallet.

    The Week In Games: Wild At Heart

    Following a disastrous round of press interviews, where Huffman came off sounding more like a Dril tweet than a company CEO and it became clear that mass blackouts were not changing his mind, mods from some of Reddit’s biggest communities decided to switch their subreddits over to NSFW (Not Suitable For Work), a toggle normally reserved for stuff like porn and, crucially, a type of subreddit that Reddit can’t show ads on, and so can’t make money off.

    Some of the communities making the switch included r/MildlyInteresting, r/TIHI (Thanks I Hate It) and r/interestingasfuck. It’s a clever move (plus it’s more legal than ransoming the company with stolen data), and one that shows the lengths mods are going to protest Huffman and his team’s actions, but it’s also one that Reddit says violates their “Content Policy and Moderator Code of Conduct”. As a result, and as The Verge report, these mods are now finding themselves “logged out of their account and locked out” by “a Reddit admin account”, and their subreddits—with millions of members—are showing up as being completely unmoderated. Those former mods have also seen their accounts suspended for seven days.

    It is incredibly funny to see the lengths Huffman and his staff are going to here. They’re in such a panic about their profit margins—and more importantly in their case, potential future share value--that they’re ignoring the fact Reddit’s entire worth is built on the back of unpaid labour. The site is literally nothing without its users (providing “content”) and mods (working for free), and Huffman is out here worried about ad revenue, from which none of those users see a cent? And sending the message that he’d rather leave whole communities unmoderated than put up with some protests?

    The internet has wrought many perils on our civilization, but the one thing it has been good for is helping publicly record just how stupid these CEOs really are.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Reddit Goes Down As Communities Protest Wildly Unpopular Changes [UPDATE]

    Reddit Goes Down As Communities Protest Wildly Unpopular Changes [UPDATE]

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    As we reported earlier in the month, Reddit, one of the most popular forums for gaming communities, is planning to make some changes under the hood that will essentially kill off every third-party app. Given the state of the official app and its heavy reliance on huge ads, it’s a deeply unpopular move, so unpopular that it has led to a protest movement that you are likely witnessing the effects of as we speak. If you load Reddit right now, chances are very good that you’re seeing a message that reads, “Sorry, we couldn’t load posts for this page.”

    This Lesbian Mafia Anime Might Actually Make You Want To Play Golf

    Alongside big subreddits like r/bestof, r/sports, r/music, r/pics and r/videos, a number of the most popular gaming subreddits have either confirmed they’re taking part, are polling members for their thoughts or will be taking more limited action as well.

    That includes r/gaming with its 37 million members, r/PS5 and its 3.3 million members, r/minecraft’s 7 million members and r/wow’s 2.3 million members. Meanwhile mods at r/pcgaming (3.2 million members) are asking users for their input before making a decision, while r/nintendo are going into a “a read-only/restricted mode”, which is not quite as severe as locking the entire subreddit down. But if you’re like most people, you likely just lurk pages, so you may not be able to see anything but this right now:

    Screenshot: Reddit / Kotaku

    The entire thing has been planned for a while now, as a gathering of Reddit’s unpaid moderators banded together and penned an open letter to the site’s management, outlining not just the general popularity of the third-party apps, but also concerns over the potential loss of important moderation tools (which many third-party apps have but the official offering somehow lacks) and impact on NSFW content as well.

    Reddit Goes Down

    That letter has been backed by plans for much of the site to engage in a “blackout” on June 12, meaning today, which means individual subreddits will lock down into “private” mode, meaning anyone who isn’t already a follower/subscriber won’t be able to access them or see any of their content.

    According to The Verge, over 6,000 subreddits have been affected on Monday as a part of the protest, which will last until the 14th. Some, it should be noted, are planning on staying private until things change. Other communities went dark as soon as the unpopular API changes were announced. Really, there are all sorts of approaches to the bad news. You might notice some communities are indeed available, but you can only post about the API changes. Others meanwhile will let you read the subreddit as it was, but won’t let you make new posts. In short, it’s a shitshow for Reddit.

    Update 6/12/2023 11:10 a.m.: We’ve updated this post to reflect that Reddit is now in fact down and out.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Reddit Is Killing The Best Way To Read The Site

    Reddit Is Killing The Best Way To Read The Site

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    Reddit is one of the biggest and most important websites on the planet, especially since it’s one of the last places human beings can get questions answered by actual human beings. So it sucks to see that the company is about to crush many of the best ways to actually experience the whole thing.

    The Week In Games: System Shock, Street Fighter 6, And More

    For anyone using the site on a desktop computer the Reddit experience is fine, I guess (“Old Reddit” is better), but on phones, that all changes. Reddit’s official app sucks, and is absolutely loaded with intrusive ads, meaning a lot of people rely on the work of third-party apps—like the incredibly popular Apollo on iOS and my own favourite, Infinity on Android—to browse and comment.

    Or they did. Those third-party apps only existed because Reddit allowed them to access their API (essentially their backend); today, the site announced specific changes to that arrangement (first broadly announced last month), implementing charges for the data—similar to those introduced by another platform with popular third-party apps, Twitter—that are so astronomical they’re going to price every third-party app out of the market.

    The creator of Apollo has done the math, and says:

    I’ll cut to the chase: 50 million requests costs $12,000, a figure far more than I ever could have imagined.

    Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year. Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I’d be in the red every month.

    Meanwhile one of the developers of RIF, another popular Android app, say that not only are they also being priced out (if Apollo can’t afford it nobody can), but that Reddit is also implementing a change where third-party apps would lose access to NSFW subreddits, while the official site would not:

    Removal of sexually explicit material from third-party apps while keeping said content in the official app. Some people have speculated that NSFW is going to leave Reddit entirely, but then why would Reddit Inc have recently expanded NSFW upload support on their desktop site?

    It’s obvious that the steep pricing, which goes far beyond what these developers were expecting or could ever afford, is not there to make money. Not when it was clear nobody was ever going to be able to pay it. It’s being brought in to crush third-party alternatives, driving every mobile user to the official app where they’ll either have to watch ads or pay for Reddit Premium.

    Or, you know, stop going to Reddit.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Redditors Are Competing To Make The Worst User Experience Possible

    Redditors Are Competing To Make The Worst User Experience Possible

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    As the recent Reddit commercials have made clear, there’s a community for everything. Nihilist horror, Game of Thrones’ Hodor, avocado food porn (because why not)…you can always find your people. Case in point, there’s a subreddit dedicated to atrocious user interfaces, which is now seeing members attempting to best each other by creating the worst UI designs possible.

    An Anime That Might Make You Put Your Minecraft Bed Next To Someone

    The term is self-explanatory: A user interface is what allows you to interact with technology, from computers to McDonald’s kiosks to exercise equipment to, of course, video games. Some, like Elden Ring’s, are good. Most just get the job done. However, when you come across a bad UI, it’s like a painful hair in your eye and a sour taste in your mouth. Ubisoft games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Bungie’s Destiny have been derided for their cluttered and clunky interfaces, respectively. But the nightmares being dreamt up on Reddit definitely, albeit intentionally, take the rotten UI cake.

    Thanks, these UIs make me hate it here

    As spotted by Twitter user Aleksandr Volodarsky, engineers on the badUIbattles subreddit are scraping the bottom of the barrel to build the most annoying user interfaces ever. A forum for folks “[creating] bad UIs just for the sake of them being bad,” redditors are designing UIs that, if they were ever implemented IRL, would make you never want to interact with technology again. Take this one designed by redditor Lamamour last April, in which you have to funnel digits into a moving row of blocks to enter your phone number.

    This “enter your phone number” concept has been iterated, tweaked, and worsened since Lamamour uploaded their initial atrocity. The latest entry by user NotYourBoii confronts you with a disordered drop-down menu that makes entering a phone number (twice, I might add) pure pain.

    But what if you wanted to unsubscribe from a newsletter, YouTube channel, or some other subscription service? Well, you wouldn’t be able to with redditor OrangePrototype’s unsubscribe button, as a fan blows your cursor away.

    Folks saw the challenge and wanted to make unsubscribing even worse, with user KountrySelektorXpert’s post asking that you tear through a 3D animated net to reach the cursed button.

    Entering your name is usually pretty easy when you have a keyboard, but leave it to these sickos to throw a wrench into things. Consider redditor IlluminatingEmerald’s Donkey Kong Country-inspired input method, which makes spelling your name truly suck.

    Funnily enough, there hasn’t been much further competition in the name-entry arena. Still, while IlluminatingEmerald has probably created the worst of this type of UI thus far, redditor jordanE124567 submitted one that requires you to upload individual JPEGs of each letter.

    There are so many aggravating user interfaces on that subreddit, with Volodarsky tweeting out some of the worst he’s found. For your viewing frustration—I mean, pleasure—here’s a little roundup of Volodarsky’s incredibly annoying findings.

    All of these were purposely designed to be as irritating as possible, and thankfully, I can’t imagine any game developers taking inspiration from user interfaces meant to get on your nerves (unless it was intended as part of the gameplay experience, as in Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or QWOP). That said, it’s hilarious seeing redditors doing their best to make the worst UI ever.

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    Levi Winslow

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  • A National Movement and a National App Join Forces to Educate, Empower Trafficking Victims

    A National Movement and a National App Join Forces to Educate, Empower Trafficking Victims

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    The nationally acclaimed movement ‘More Too Life,’ founded by Dr. Brook Parker Bello, has joined forces with the CEO and Founder of the See Something, Send Something App, Kevin Angell, to create an interactive platform for trafficking victims in an effort to provide support, education and empower them through achievable goals.

    Press Release
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    updated: Oct 3, 2018


    SARASOTA, Fla., October 3, 2018 (Newswire.com)
    –
     Dr. Brook Parker Bello, Founder and CEO/ED of More Too Life, Inc., is a highly sought-after international speaker, champion against human trafficking and teacher in what she calls “Digital Integrity, Intelligence, and Safety.” She has been recognized with countless achievement awards, fellows and appointments, and most recently was named a Google Next-Gen Policy Leader, with the ability to learn from leading Google executives and other leaders in profound aspects that deal with world issues in relation to tech and tech policy.

    Bello, a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the 44thPresident of the United States, isn’t done yet. She’s looking to expand her outreach through a small but mighty piece of technology and soon her clients will be able to find it in both the iOS and Android Marketplace. She says, “More Too Life, Inc. is an anti-sexual violence, human trafficking, and youth crime prevention organization, and smart device interaction with their clients will help educate and empower them.”

    More Too Life is an anti-sexual violence, human trafficking and youth crime prevention organization that was named by United Way Worldwide as one of the best in the nation.

    Dr. Brook Parker Bello, Founder and CEO/ED of More Too Life, Inc.,

    This past summer, Dr. Bello crossed professional paths with CEO Kevin Angell, who founded and released a nationally known app keenly named ‘See Something, Send Something.’ The name, a play on words from the Department of Homeland Security’s initiative to see something, say something, describes appropriately what the app does. “Users can document suspicious or criminal behavior with their smart device and send the information directly to local law enforcement,” Angell said. The app is already in use by more than 200 agencies across the country and another 100 school districts.

    The synergy between Dr. Bello’s movement and Angell’s app was electric if not apparent by their immediate friendship over their devotion to help the community. Following a few round-table discussions, they decided to team up and release a powerful app spin-off from another platform Bello built from the ground up. The new app, not yet named but scheduled for a 2019 release, will allow clients to interact with mentors, advocates, request resources, achieve milestones through goals set by More Too Life staff and much more. Additionally, the secure case management platform will encourage better communication through expanded availability.

    Angell has personally contributed to the app’s development costs by investing more than $10,000 to get started. They hope to raise additional funds through community investors, board members, and fundraising campaigns for their companies marketing budget.

    Both Dr. Bello and Angell have hinted at future add-ins or a companion to the app but kept their cards close to the vest when pressed for details.  

    Source: Crowdsourced Geofencing Solutions LLC

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  • EyesOnALZ Citizen Science Project to Enlist Millions of PBS Viewers to Fight Alzheimer’s

    EyesOnALZ Citizen Science Project to Enlist Millions of PBS Viewers to Fight Alzheimer’s

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    Press Release
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    updated: Apr 6, 2017


    Ithaca, NY, April 6, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
     EyesOnALZ (http://eyesonalz.com) – a project to crowdsource Alzheimer’s research is launching an online competition to #CrushALZ on April 6th, in partnership with The Crowd & The Cloud – a public television documentary series about citizen science.  

    The documentary, created by a producer of Carl Sagan’s original COSMOS series, shines first light on a growing movement of citizens participating en masse in the advancement of scientific research. The creators of this 4-part mini-series are dedicated to “turning viewers into doers” by encouraging hands-on participation in science.

    Normally it would take a year for Cornell to analyze these data, but with the momentum of the documentary, we hope to enlist the help of millions of viewers to answer a key research question that will help us leap forward toward a treatment.

    Pietro Michelucci, Director, Human Computation Institute

    Stall Catchers (http://stallcatchers.com), developed as part of the EyesOnALZ project, is the first citizen science game to tackle Alzheimer’s disease. EyesOnALZ and Stall Catchers are featured in Episode 1 of the The Crowd and The Cloud, which will premier on National Public Television across the US on April 6th, and is available to watch online at http://crowdandcloud.org.

    EyesOnALZ founder Pietro Michelucci will kick-off the “#CrushALZ Team Competition” on Stall Catchers during the social media event immediately following the series premiere. This live after-show event will take place at 10PM ET April 6, on The Crowd and The Cloud Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/crowdandcloudTV/).

    Dr. Michelucci will join the live video stream with other subjects of the series, including EyesOnALZ biomedical collaborator Chris Schaffer from Cornell University. The month-long team competition aims to accelerate Cornell’s groundbreaking Alzheimer’s research program, which, according to Dr. Schaffer, “would be impractical without Stall Catchers”.

    Any interested organization will be able to create a team on Stall Catchers and compete with other organizations who want to help eliminate Alzheimer’s. The team registration will open up at 6AM ET, April 6 at StallCatchers.com. Instructions on how to set up teams and invite members will be posted on the EyesOnALZ blog (http://blog.eyesonalz.com) that morning. 

    The most active teams in the competition will receive daily exposure via EyesOnALZ media channels and those of partner organizations. A number of PBS stations, also set to participate in the competition, will invite their local viewers to join forces and #CrushALZ.

    According to Dr. Michelucci, a new Alzheimer’s dataset has been loaded into Stall Catchers just for the competition: “Normally it would take a year for Cornell to analyze these data, but with the momentum of the documentary, we hope to enlist the help of millions of viewers to answer a key research question that will help us leap forward toward a treatment.”

    Players’ collective progress toward answering the research question will be reported throughout the competition. Dr. Michelucci plans to reveal the potential impact of this research question during the after-show event. “If all goes well, in one month we will have our answer and move on to the next question.”

    Source: Human Computation Institute

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