Comments on: Why Labor as a Service is as Cloudy as it Gets

By: John

John — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:21:05 +0000

Pingsta has been doing this for the network engineering since 2008 under the tagline of expertise-in-the-cloud and intelligence-as-a-service. Pingsta's work anywhere, anytime through any media vision is the future of work.

John a Pingsta ICE member

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:29:28 +0000

I think David's example below provides an exemplary example of the cloud connection. Just like a company might launch a temporary web site on EC2 or run a quick batch analysis on some data, someone might use LaaS to carry out an ad hoc task that requires human judgment. The real similarity is in the model -- it's fast, easy, cheap and doesn't require going to HR (or, in the case of servers, IT). Essentially, the only difference is brain cycles vs. CPU cycles.

You wouldn't use it to create anything, but rather to analyze in ways that the vast, vast majority of algorithms cannot. Or to edit, debug, cleanse data, etc.

By: David Cowan

David Cowan — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:22:13 +0000

I liked the idea so much I invested in CrowdFlower. Founder Lukas Biewald blew me away in our very first meeting, during which he ran a sentiment analysis for me on the last 500 tweets about BillShrink, completing it with 96% confidence per item before the pitch was done. (It cost me $13.)

By: jim

jim — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:20:55 +0000

It was an interesting read ..

When you look at the Managed service business ( recruiters r business development managers ) currently providing service on demand. It lends itself to LAAS.....

thanksJ

By: Imran Anwar

Imran Anwar — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:12:15 +0000

I am sorry, but I don't understand how you can call that cloud computing. The idea of labor on demand is compelling, but I do not think one can quite compare that as a functional model to cloud computing/IT. In the IT world we can slice jobs, or processes, or datasets, based on additional CPU/Memory/storage requirements and distribute workloads or hire more fairly standardized units of capability/capacity.

How does that work in anything remotely creative or judgement driven? One can't expect a great novel to be produced by hiring 100 authors online. I wouldn't even expect basic functionality apps to get created that way. Perhaps you have better examples that can help shed light on how "LaaS" or "LoD" is "Cloud Computing". Thanks.