mymt2k.com : " My mTurk " ?...

This mymt2k.com thing was too much of interest from a business intelligence perspective for me not to spend an hour or so today to find out what it could be. Turns out it's a... Wait a second, you'll get the answer at the end of this post.

Before that, let's start with the begining : Google. A quick search on "mymt2k" gives a 6-pages results, with FiberGeneration on the first one and lots of... porn-related stuff on the 5th and 6th pages.
On the first page too, a handful of other blogs also displayed on mymt2k. See for instance Euan Semple' s The Obvious, or Blucat and A Reality Of My Own. According to the respective posts, the thing started back in March this year...

Then, let's go on WhoIs to find out who could be behind the mysterious website. Mr Jason Lucas is the happy owner. Congrats, Man ! Such a hype for a domain registered in January, that's quite a success. However, I'm not the only one to think Mr Lucas is a cover...

So, let's dig into the mymt2k website itself. Start with the simple URL 'mymt2k.com' : a nice, white, blank page. Cool, zen, but useless. A quick look at the different URLs mentionned by above bloggers and commenters show that the main content is a dynamic one. See for instance here, and here : same tmp9 directory, yet displaying different content.

Then, how about looking at the 'mymt2k.com/tmp*/' directories themselves ? From 1 to 10 and above, quite interesting outcomes. For instance, in tmp4 there is a link to the old contest at Snap.com.
See the structure of the tmp9 one in the screenshot at the left. Hum... what's that 'mturk' stuff ? Does ring a bell ? Fine, let's go deeper onto the investigation.

Go to the tmp6 directory, and read the bold flashy statement :
" Note: Be patient and check pages carefully! We will invite good mturkers for our next tasks with a much higher payment! "
Okay, finally we got them ! So simple : 'mymt2k' stands for " My mTurk ", easy, right ?

Now, what's an mTurk ? For those of you who are not familiar with the Web 2.0 world, mTurk, or Mechanical Turk, is a new service offered by Amazon since a few months.

You may read the FAQ page on mturk.com here. Pretty exciting yet a bit complex for non-geeks people. In summary, the mTurk service puts Human Intelligence behind the computer (that's a nice one ;-).

Says Amazon :

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk? 

In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelen's "Turk" was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinet's doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a human chess master cleverly concealed inside.

Today, we build complex software applications based on the things computers do well, such as storing and retrieving large amounts of information or rapidly performing calculations. However, humans still significantly outperform the most powerful computers at completing such simple tasks as identifying objects in photographs—something children can do even before they learn to speak.

When we think of interfaces between human beings and computers, we usually assume that the human being is the one requesting that a task be completed, and the computer is completing the task and providing the results. What if this process were reversed and a computer program could ask a human being to perform a task and return the results? What if it could coordinate many human beings to perform a task?

Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate "artificial artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. Behind the scenes, a network of humans fuels this artificial artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.

What problem does Amazon Mechanical Turk solve? 

For software developers, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of building applications that until now have not worked well because they lack human intelligence. Humans are much more effective than computers at solving some types of problems, like finding specific objects in pictures, evaluating beauty, or translating text. The Amazon Mechanical Turk web service gives developers a programmable interface to a network of humans to solve these kinds of problems and incorporate this human intelligence into their applications.

For businesses and entrepreneurs who want tasks completed, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of getting work done in a cost-effective manner by people who have the skill to do the work. The service provides access to a vast network of human intelligence with the efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of computers. Oftentimes, the cost of establishing a network of skilled people to do the work outweighs the value of completing it. By turning the fixed costs into variable costs that scale with business needs, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service eliminates this barrier and allows work to be completed that before was not economical.

For people who want to earn money in their spare time, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site solves the problem of finding work that they can do wherever and whenever they want.

Interesting concept, huh ?

Now, let's go back to the HITs Human Intelligence Tasks main page. There is a "Web Page Classification" HIT here. Looks familiar, right ?
    

The remaining question is : does mymt2k.com belong to Amazon, or is it a kind of mashup by some research firm - or guy (this Jason Lucas is unknown on mTurk, and Steven Research is unknown on Google) ?...

Comments

[blucat]

Hey Marc

Thanks for the research into this. True to form I only vaguely understood what the article is saying but my guy explained it to me pretty well in s.i.m.p.l.e human language.

If mturk is doing some sort of research/gathering stats/survey thing about blogs, well I wonder who they're doing it for hmm. It would be pretty mundane if this is all for market research though.

~blucat
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Hi Blucat : the only thing you've got to keep in mind is that, perhaps, someone somewhere is somehow making money with your blog ;-)
_Marc

[Miss]

If thats the case, let me in on that cash!

[MIke]

It surely isn't a money making exercise, I suppose it is an easy thing to jump to conclusions of its sinister purpose?

None the less,a jump that wouldn't be too far from the truth - for i see no other use, but to a census on internet/blog activity - one of many growing - but last avenues of public dissent, knowledge and commercially un-effected news mediums.

In the coming years Newspapers will be dead and the news corporations know this!

Infiltrate! - surveillance! - Control! - taint! - Fear! - own! - Censor!............

on & on!

I see no good coming from this little site & its activities - we have search engines- many of them! - so why should such a site exsist,that has such lofty objectives!!!

There is more to this i think!

or am i missing the boat here?
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Hi Mike,

Very interesting point of view. I agree with you on the newspapers : for many different reasons, from costs and pricing issues to the fight against global warming to erosion of readership to competition from new medias such as blogs etc., this sector is to face a dramatic facelift.

Back on this mymt2k thing, I'm still not sure it's not a one-man stuff. Ok, it seems to be hosted by/on Amazon' mTurk engine, but that could be done by any of us in the Web 2.0 space.

_Marc

[Beth Ziesenis]

I just got my first visit from mymt2k, and I'm still trying to figure out what it is. I got you when I googled.

[waycoolmom1]

I got a hit today for the first time from mymt2k. I found your posts when I looked for an explanation of mymt2k on Google and Dogpile web searches.

THANK YOU for taking the time to put all the specific information you did on here. It's been very helpful.

I'm still not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that they are linking to my blog and rating my page content ...a little disconcerting maybe since no one asked or acknowledged...but I will give it some time and see what happens. (eeek!)
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You're very welcome, dear Cool Mom !
FYI : after a calm period, this mTurk thing seemed to get back to life two days ago. I got about 50 hits thru it yesterday. Very strange, indeed. I'll dig further.
_Marc

[KatK]

Ahhhh! Now I see! You ought to link back to this article so people who find your latest entry mentioning this can more easily find this and read it. I hope I confounded the mturks with my blog and my "meanderings". Probably not though. They probably stuck me in some nice niche that really doesn't fit me at all. Bleh! Do a Wayback Machine search for mymt2k.com, you'll find that they put my blog in there in July. Yet, they are only just getting around to hitting it today. *wry* I guess I should be grateful, I've had a few blissful months virtually spam free. I guess that's about to change, eh?

[Sirah]

Hi Marc:

I have just read your article, because of my investigation about the mysterious mymt2k.com. I have just find its link in my stats, and I was really suprised in finding a empty website, like you found it too.

Maybe I could have much imagination:), but I want to make a proposal in the air.

Fact One: All of us are receiving strange visits from this "subject".
Fact Two: When our curiosity carries on knowing better who are "they", we crash into a wall of darkness. The only page we find is a blank page.

In my case, my stats are reflecting in the last week, an extrange increase of visitors, who arrive all of them, by a group of keywords, THAT I DONT HAVE IN MY BLOG ¡¡.

After this visits, I´ve find pingbacks from another websites ¡ with my content ¡ (If someone of you understand spanish, can read my post about it in evolucionando.wordpress.com). The last three days my stats are full of links to my images (many of them, shared from internet)

I don´t know if both situations (the theft of my contents, and the mysterious arrival of mymt2k to my life, are only pure coincidences. Maybe. But I feel I have to tell you.

From a psychological point of view, "maybe" to find a link to a blank page, creates the sensation of "dark surveillance". Maybe don´t be another "coincidence", maybe, this sensation can be caused intentionally. Why?

For a simple reason, for they, with this level of tech, would be really easy to hide their visit to our projects. They know, that many of us, for curiosity, click on their link.. to find a blank page ¡¡.

Anyone is receiving money to classify our contents, apparently this is what they "could wish?" show us. But if I would want to work for this kind of job.. where is the door that I can knock on?. Nothing, don´t exist.

I´d like to know what kind of blogger are reciving visits from this strange website. I´d like to know, if any of them, "could" have "special" content.. (Sorry I am becaming paranoid, but I´d share with all of you my explorations from all the possibilities, and know your opinion about)

If the most of blogger had "special Contents", of important tematics, maybe it would be useful some kind of "touch" from a kind unknow friend, like this. (I follow explorating)

Well, it can have more possibilities, maybe I am wrong but it can be amusing to be attractive to this kind of mysterious websites. Don´t you?

Thanks to let me express my fantastic ideas about this question:)
Sirah
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Sirah : very interesting point of view.
_Marc

[Peter McGrath]

Nice work. Been getting visits from these people too. And the moral? Support your local cd/bookshop.

[melusina76]

Hi Marc. Thanks for this post. My blog is in Italian, but apparently "they" can read languages different from English too.
I got 5 visits from the Turk only in December. But why? Who's interested in categorizing my blog? I simply write about my life... :-/
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Hello Melusina (what a nice first name :-)
I still have no clue on who's really behind mTurk, however I'm more and more convinced it's an agent aimed a crawling the web on a regular basis. Not sure yet, but we may distinguish a search pattern in the hits we all get from mTurk.

HTH,
and sorry not to speak Italian,
_Marc