From the website:
Like Cloud computing with People.
Computers can’t do every task. Luckily, we have people to help.
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From CrowdFlower Gets Gamers to Do Real Work for Virtual Pay
Here’s how it works. CrowdFlower embeds tasks in online games like FarmVille, Restaurant City, It Girl, Happy Aquarium, Happy Pets, Happy Island and Pop Boom. This means that the estimated 80 million gamers — from teens to homemakers — who are hooked on FarmVille, Zynga’s popular virtual farming game on Facebook, can be transformed into a virtual workforce.
To get to the next level in FarmVille, for example, the gamer might need 600 XP (XP means “experience” in Farmville parlance). So the gamer might buy a bed and breakfast building for $60 in FarmVille cash, which would earn him 600 XP. But for many gamers, revenue — and XP — from crop harvesting comes too slowly.
To earn game money quickly, the gamer can click a tab on the FarmVille page that links to real-world tasks to be performed by crowdsourced workers. Once the task is successfully completed, the gamer gets his FarmVille cash and CrowdFlower is paid by the client. The latter pays in real money, usually with a 10 percent markup.
Like any number of crowd sourcing services but I was struck by the notion of embedding tasks inside games for virtual payment.
Not the answer to all topic map authoring tasks but certainly worth thinking about.
Question: Does anyone have experience with creating topic maps by embedding tasks in online games?