The Rise of Crowd Aggregators - How Individual Workers Restructure Their Own Crowd

Crowd work has emerged as a new form of digital gainful employment whose nature is still a black box. In this paper, we focus on the crowd workers – a perspective that has been largely neglected by research. We report results from crowd worker interviews on two different platforms. Our findings illustrate that crowd aggregators as new players restructure the nature of crowd work sustainably with different effects on the behavior as well as the existing relationships of crowd workers. We contribute to prior research by developing a theoretical framework based on value chain and work aggregation theories which are applicable in this new form of digital labor. For practice, our results provide initial insights that need to be taken into account as part of the ongoing discussion on fair and decent conditions in crowd work

On the innovation mechanisms of fintech start-ups: insights from Swift's innotribe competition

The emergence of nascent forms of financial technology around the globe is driven by efforts to deconstruct and reimagine business models historically embedded within financial services. Entrepreneurial endeavors to this end are diverse. Indeed, the propensity towards complexity across the fintech landscape is considerable. Bridging as it does a diverse range of financial ser-vices, markets, innovations, industry participants, infrastructures and technologies. This study aims to improve the comprehension of the global fintech landscape. It is based on the analysis of start-ups who participated in SWIFT’s Innotribe competition over a three-year period. We used cluster analysis to group 402 fintech start-up firms, and then selected representative cases to create a foundational understanding of the structure of the fintech landscape. We found that six clusters capture the variety of firms and their activities. The main findings of this work are: (1) the development of fintech clusters to classify core services, business infrastructures and underlying component technologies, which characterize the fintech landscape; (2) an analysis of how fintechs synthesize different technologies to restructure and coordinate flows of financial information through competitive and cooperative mechanisms of disintermediation, extension of access, financialization, hybridization and personalization; (3) an analysis of related strate-gies for value creation connected with the competitive and cooperative mechanisms that were identified. Collectively, our results offer new insights into the diversity and range of emergent innovations and technologies which are transforming the financial services industry worldwide

Human-Machine Teamwork: An Exploration of Multi-Agent Systems, Team Cognition, and Collective Intelligence

One of the major ways through which humans overcome complex challenges is teamwork. When humans share knowledge and information, and cooperate and coordinate towards shared goals, they overcome their individual limitations and achieve better solutions to difficult problems. The rise of artificial intelligence provides a unique opportunity to study teamwork between humans and machines, and potentially discover insights about cognition and collaboration that can set the foundation for a world where humans work with, as opposed to against, artificial intelligence to solve problems that neither human or artificial intelligence can solve on its own. To better understand human-machine teamwork, it’s important to understand human-human teamwork (humans working together) and multi-agent systems (how artificial intelligence interacts as an agent that’s part of a group) to identify the characteristics that make humans and machines good teammates. This perspective lets us approach human-machine teamwork from the perspective of the human as well as the perspective of the machine. Thus, to reach a more accurate understanding of how humans and machines can work together, we examine human-machine teamwork through a series of studies. In this dissertation, we conducted 4 studies and developed 2 theoretical models: First, we focused on human-machine cooperation. We paired human participants with reinforcement learning agents to play two game theory scenarios where individual interests and collective interests are in conflict to easily detect cooperation. We show that different reinforcement models exhibit different levels of cooperation, and that humans are more likely to cooperate if they believe they are playing with another human as opposed to a machine. Second, we focused on human-machine coordination. We once again paired humans with machines to create a human-machine team to make them play a game theory scenario that emphasizes convergence towards a mutually beneficial outcome. We also analyzed survey responses from the participants to highlight how many of the principles of human-human teamwork can still occur in human-machine teams even though communication is not possible. Third, we reviewed the collective intelligence literature and the prediction markets literature to develop a model for a prediction market that enables humans and machines to work together to improve predictions. The model supports artificial intelligence operating as a peer in the prediction market as well as a complementary aggregator. Fourth, we reviewed the team cognition and collective intelligence literature to develop a model for teamwork that integrates team cognition, collective intelligence, and artificial intelligence. The model provides a new foundation to think about teamwork beyond the forecasting domain. Next, we used a simulation of emergency response management to test the different teamwork aspects of a variety of human-machine teams compared to human-human and machine-machine teams. Lastly, we ran another study that used a prediction market to examine the impact that having AI operate as a participant rather than an aggregator has on the predictive capacity of the prediction market. Our research will help identify which principles of human teamwork are applicable to human-machine teamwork, the role artificial intelligence can play in enhancing collective intelligence, and the effectiveness of human-machine teamwork compared to single artificial intelligence. In the process, we expect to produce a substantial amount of empirical results that can lay the groundwork for future research of human-machine teamwork

Digital platforms of work and the crafting of career path: the crowdworkers’ perspective

Work and Employment is a critical area that is undergoing major change influenced by the widespread connectivity and utilisation of the Internet and the rise of digital platforms. Crowdwork is an emerging new way of working that is witnessing exponential growth. It is surrounded by a fixed debate between opposite perspectives on its impact on workers. However, both perspectives adopt a static view that does not pay much attention to crowdworkers’ progress in their job over time. In this study, we seek to advance this debate by adopting a dynamic view of crowdwork to explore the trajectory of workers over time based on their own accounts. Through rich qualitative data and inductive analysis, the study unravels that crowdworkers craft what could be conceptualised as a career development path. It identifies five stages in this career path and workers’ efforts to mould their work demands and job-related resources to create a future for themselves. The discussion shows the fruitful insight that this approach brings to theory and practice. Limitations and future avenues for research are then discussed

Business set-up, transfer and closure

The report deals with the key drivers of business set-ups, transfers and closures. It considers innovative new business models and entrepreneurial activity. It also examines a wide range of regulatory, institutional and financial factors that influence primarily set-ups, but ultimately can also impact on the manner and ease with which businesses close. Finally, the report examines the closure of businesses - through voluntary exits, personal insolvency (bankruptcy) or corporate insolvency. This report was released on 21 May 2015. You are invited to examine the draft report, to make written submissions by Friday 3 July 2015 and to register to participate in public hearings. Key Points Businesses are set-up for a variety of reasons and in any one year there is a churn of entries and exits that is comparable with other countries. Most businesses are small and a very low proportion are innovative, producing a product or service new to Australian or international markets. The propensity to be innovative is highest amongst larger businesses. While it is generally relatively easy to start a business, a number of longstanding issues with specific regulatory requirements and regulator engagement and funding remain unaddressed and are making new business entry unnecessarily complex or costly. Some new business models - particularly those that exploit digital technology to make better use of information - are challenging existing regulatory arrangements or causing others to operate in regulatory grey areas. Regulators should have the capacity to exempt businesses for a fixed period, from particular regulatory requirements where these deter entry but exemption does not threaten consumer, public health and safety, or environmental outcomes. Government assistance to business set-ups should not be directed at particular business models, technologies, sectors or locations - criteria based on desired outcomes (such as technology transfer and spillovers) with matching private sector investment, are less likely to distort incentives and behaviours, particularly in a rapidly evolving environment. Any assistance should focus on those areas where there are economy-wide net benefits, and in the absence of a business set-up, there would be a justifiable need for other forms of government assistance. Access to finance is generally not a significant barrier to business set-up. New debt financing platforms, such as peer-to-peer lending, are helping to fill the gap in unsecured debt finance available from the major financial institutions. The voluntary participation by lenders in comprehensive credit reporting should be reviewed. A two-tier regulatory structure should be introduced for crowd-sourced equity to balance the financing needs of business against the risk preferences of different types of investors. Most businesses are closed or transferred without financial failure. Governments\u27 role in such situations should be limited to provision of clear guidelines for businesses, associations and advisers on exit and succession planning, and ensuring government processes are timely. While some specific reforms to Australia\u27s corporate insolvency regime are warranted, a wholesale change to the system, such as the adoption of the United States \u27chapter 11\u27 framework, is not justified. Formal restructuring of companies through voluntary administration should be enabled as an option for when a company may become, but is not yet, insolvent. There should be provision for a \u27safe harbour\u27 to allow company directors to explore restructuring options without liability for insolvent trading. A simplified liquidation process should be introduced to reduce the time and expense toward winding up businesses with little or no recoverable assets. All directors should be required to obtain a director identification number to enable the easier detection of disqualified or fraudulent directors. The default exclusion period and associated restrictions applying to bankrupts in relation to access to finance, employment (including being a company director) and overseas travel should be reduced from 3 years to 1 year, with the trustee and courts retaining the power to extend this period where necessary to prevent abuse of the bankruptcy process

Law for the Platform Economy

This Article: explores patterns of legal-institutional change in the emerging, platform-driven economy. Its starting premise is that the platform is not simply a new business model, a new social technology, or a new infrastructural formation (although it is also all of those things). Rather, it is the core organizational form of the emerging informational economy. Platforms do not enter or expand markets; they replace (and rematerialize) them. The article argues that legal institutions, including both entitlements and regulatory institutions, have systematically facilitated the platform economy\u27s emergence. It first describes the evolution of the platform as a mode of economic (re)organization and introduces the ways that platforms restructure both economic exchange and patterns of information flow more generally. It then explores some of the ways that actions and interventions by and on behalf of platform businesses are reshaping the landscape of legal entitlements and obligations. Finally, it describes challenges that platform-based intermediation of the information environment has posed for existing regulatory institutions and traces some of the emerging institutional responses

Open Education

"This insightful collection of essays explores the ways in which open education can democratise access to education for all. It is a rich resource that offers both research and case studies to relate the application of open technologies and approaches in education settings around the world. Global in perspective, this book argues strongly for the value of open education in both the developed and developing worlds. Through a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches, it demonstrates that open education promotes ideals of inclusion, diversity, and social justice to achieve the vision of education as a fundamental human right. A must-read for practitioners, policy-makers, scholars and students in the field of education.

PropTech 3.0: the future of real estate

Right now, thousands of extremely clever people backed by billions of dollars of often expert investment are working very hard to change the way real estate is traded, used and operated. It would be surprising, to say the least, if this burst of activity – let’s call it PropTech 2.0 - does not lead to some significant change. No doubt many PropTech firms will fail and a lot of money will be lost, but there will be some very successful survivors who will in time have a radical impact on what has been a slow-moving, conservative industry. How, and where, will this happen? Underlying this huge capitalist and social endeavour is a clash of generations. Many of the startups are driven by, and aimed at, millennials, but they often look to babyboomers for money - and sometimes for advice. PropTech 2.0 is also engineering a much-needed boost to property market diversity. Unlike many traditional real estate businesses, PropTech is attracting a diversified pool of talent that has representation from different regions of the world and entrepreneurs from a highly diverse career and education background. Given the difference in background between the establishment and the drivers of the PropTech wave, it is not surprising that there is some disagreement about the level of disruption that PropTech 2.0 will create. In this research we interviewed over 50 real estate professionals, entrepreneurs and capital providers. From one side, we heard that none of these startups know what they are doing and that young entrepreneurs misguidedly regard real estate as a sure thing. From the other, we heard that real estate people are not good at strategy and are determined to protect inefficient fee-earning practices. 2017 seems to mark a turning point. PropTech 2.0 has been building such mass and momentum that it will change the world. But real estate is a slow moving asset class, and the real estate industry is highly conservative. How will this play out? This, the Said Business School Oxford’s first real estate research report, maps this emerging sector and focusses in particular on the impact of tech change on the character of this enormous asset class