Crowdsourced Infographics

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crowdsourced infographics
Posted by Jim Giles at 11:51 am on March 17th, 2011

This is an extract from an infographic that was put together using a hybrid man-machine workflow that¶s similar to the one we¶re experimenting with. Like the article-writing process that I wrote about earlier, the creation of the graphic was almost entirely automated. It¶s the work of Seattle-based MediaPiston. Joe Heitzeberg, the company¶s ³chief piston´, says that his client wanted a green-energy infographic for its blog. Heitzeberg had to set up the system manually by inputing keywords and the addresses of websites where he expected to find useful data, like Economist.com. Then the robot boss took over. The first stage was software-led: an algorithm trawled the suggested sites for links to studies and reports on green energy. The list of potential sources was sent to three writers in MediaPiston¶s pool of online workers, who were tasked with creating briefs for infographics based on data in the sources. Other workers did quality control checks on the briefs. After feedback from the client, the preferred brief went to a designer in MediaPison¶s pool, who had a series of pre-set templates to help them create what you see above.

This sounds like the design process in a regular company. But the back and forth between writers and designers and quality control ² all that was handled by the software. And MediaPiston¶s workers are not on staff. They¶re crowdsourced labour and could in principle be based anywhere. The process has that ³black box´ quality that characterises our journalism experiment. Once the system is up and running, you, the manager, simply have to wait until the result pops out. So how much do MediaPiston¶s workers get paid? Heitzeberg says that he¶s only just started with the graphics, but the more experienced members of his writing pool, who produce blog posts and other material for websites, earn in the region of 5 cents per word.

Summary The article consists of an extract from an infographic that was put together using a hybrid man-machine workflow or something that's almost entirely automated. It’s the work of Seattle-based MediaPiston.

Description The first stage of the creation of the infographic was software-led: an algorithm trawled the suggested sites for links to studies and reports on green energy. The list of potential sources was sent to three writers in MediaPiston’s pool of online workers, who were tasked with creating briefs for infographics based on data in the sources. Other workers did quality control checks on the briefs. After feedback from the client, the preferred brief went to a designer in MediaPison’s pool, who had a series of pre-set templates to help them create the infographic.

Tags: Crowdsourcing, infographics, Joe Heitzeberg, journalism experiment, MediaPiston, my boss is a robot

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