Concepts inMicroTrails: comparing hypotheses about task selection on a crowdsourcing platform

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people. This process can occur both online and offline, and the difference between crowdsourcing and ordinary outsourcing is that a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific body, such as paid employees. Crowdsourcing is related to, but not the same as, human-based computation, which refers to the ways in which humans and computers can work together to solve problems.  more from Wikipedia

Hypothesis

A hypothesis (from Greek ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿; plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿ hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous observations that cannot satisfactorily be explained with the available scientific theories.  more from Wikipedia

Computing platform

A computing platform includes a hardware architecture and a software framework, where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run. Typical platforms include a computer's architecture, operating system, programming languages and related user interface. A platform is a crucial element in software development. A platform might be simply defined as a place to launch software.  more from Wikipedia

Usability testing

Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. This is in contrast with usability inspection methods where experts use different methods to evaluate a user interface without involving users. Usability testing focuses on measuring a human-made product's capacity to meet its intended purpose.  more from Wikipedia

Scenario

A scenario is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the Commedia dell'arte it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play that was literally pinned to the back of the scenery. It is also known as canovaccio or "that which is pinned to the canvas" of which the scenery was constructed.  more from Wikipedia

Amazon Mechanical Turk

The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables computer programmers (known as Requesters) to co-ordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks that computers are currently unable to do. It is one of the suites of Amazon Web Services.  more from Wikipedia