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When referring to services that provide access to crowdworkers to perform tasks to be done on a computer with an internet connection (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk), in contrast with those that allow for tasks to be performed in the physical world (e.g., TaskRabbit), how would you call one vs the other?

I'm set on using the term "location-based crowdsourcing" for the type of crowdsourcing that is performed in the physical world. I am trying to use "online crowdsourcing" for the type that is done only online. But part of the problem with that is that, both are facilitated by online technologies.

Another option is to call it "virtual crowdsourcing."

Any other suggestions?

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  • telesourcing? remote-sourcing? – Kris Jun 1 '14 at 6:03
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I would consider crowdsourcing primarily to be oriented to a multiplicity of tasks and suppliers, whereas local sourcing is perhaps more typically fulfilling a single task instance by a single supplier. Perhaps retaining 'crowdsourcing' for the 'virtual/online' type and 'local outsourcing' for the Taskrabbit type is worth considering.

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  • Good point, although in the context of what I am writing, multiple providers are hired both online and offline. – amh Jun 1 '14 at 3:54
  • Why not verb the noun and call it taskrabbitting? – Kris Jun 1 '14 at 5:48
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Alice Z. Yelped about the Loving Cup, 2/27/2013:

my friends who live in russian hill love it so much that they've even taskrabbitted delivery from Loving Cup when they were too lazy to walk 2 blocks there. it's THAT good.

Found on tinyknowledge quoting kernelmag

We 'TaskRabbitted' an ex-BBC analyst to clean our office

Note the scare quotes, suggesting it's a nonce word/ neologism.

Better tell the TR people before adopting the term in a big way, though.

[meta]: This is not an answer, just an overlong comment. Have fun. What the OP needs is quite the opposite of this: online, across-the-world task servicing.

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  • thanks. i want something not specific to taskrabbit as there are several platforms that provide that same service. – amh Jun 1 '14 at 9:39
  • You've missed the whole point. See the examples in my answer: They have nothing to do with TR at all. – Kris Jun 2 '14 at 5:51

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