The impact of task description linguistic style on task performance: a text mining of crowdsourcing contests

PurposeExisting studies on the relationship between task description and task performance are insufficient, with many studies considering description length rather than content to measure quality or only evaluating a single aspect of task performance. To address this gap, this study analyzes the linguistic styles of task descriptions from 2,545 tasks on the Taskcn.com crowdsourcing platform.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical analysis was completed for task description language styles and task performance. The paper used text mining tool Simplified Chinese Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count to extract eight linguistic styles, namely readability, self-distancing, cognitive complexity, causality, tentative language, humanizing personal details, normative information and language intensity. And it tests the relationship between the eight language styles and task performance.FindingsThe study found that more cognitive complexity markers, tentative language, humanized details and normative information increase the quantity of submissions for a task. In addition, more humanized details and normative information in a task description improves the quality of task. Conversely, the inclusion of more causal relationships in a task description reduces the quantity of submissions. Poorer readability of the task description, less self-estrangement and higher language intensity reduces the quality of the task.Originality/valueThis study first reveals the importance of the linguistic styles used in task descriptions and provides a reference for how to attract more task solvers and achieve higher quality task performance by improving task descriptions. The research also enriches existing knowledge on the impact of linguistic styles and the applications of text mining.

A model for the individual empowerment using intrinsic personalization of crowdsourcing tasks

Crowdsourcing is a paradigm of outsourcing work that is done using human capabilities through the Internet. Given the various possibilities of overcoming cultural and social barriers, crowdsourcing provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to have a financial compensation and help them feel realised. In crowdsourcing, people with disabilities face problems related with the lack of task description or usability. This article it is presented the main threads for my PhD thesis which main goal is to prove, that it is possible to map crowdsourcing tasks effectively to each individual, focusing particularly on the cognitive abilities.

Reproducibility of task description questionnaire among brazilian pregnant workers

Background: The increase in the number of pregnant women working to the end of gestation has attracted interest in studying the effects of work on maternal fetal health. A task description questionnaire (TDQ) was developed to evaluate pregnant women and labor tasks performed in this period. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the reproducibility of the TDQ and its questions regarding the labor tasks performed by pregnant workers. Methods: Test-retest reproducibility was performed with data collected at seven-day intervals in 37 pregnant women. A Spearman test and κ coefficients were calculated for test-retest agreement. Results: With regard to κ, the results showed good to total agreement for questions 3 and 4. The Spearman correlation was excellent to moderate (for questions 5 and 6). Conclusions: The results of the reproducibility of the TDQ reflected the good understanding of this tool, because it was simple, easy and fast to apply. A TDQ can detect the need for changes in the occupational environment of pregnant workers. This ensures the examination of maternal fetal health and safety.

Role of an Educational Advisor from the Viewpoint of Professors and Students: A Qualitative Study from Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Introduction: Professor of the educational advisor is responsible for the academic and counselling guidance of students in educational, research and social fields. Also should be familiar with all the indicators of the consultation and be aware of duties and responsibilities. The study aims to explain the features of the professor of an educational advisor from the viewpoint of professors and students from Sabzevar University of medical sciences, Iran. Methods: In this qualitative study, participants were selected using purposive sampling, and it continued based on snowball and theoretical sampling. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. A total of 27 participants (12 Professors and 15 Students of medical science) were interviewed in 2 months. Interviews were analyzed using Graham and Landman’s content analysis method. To ensure consistency and accuracy of data, credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability criteria were assessed. Results: Nine main categories were conceptualized including “Improper notification in task description”, “Permanent and voluntary inaccessibility”, “Teacher-student relationship in the teaching process”, “Attention to students' comments and access”, “Lack of knowledge of task description”, “Refer to other professors”, “Specialization”, “Strengthen teacher-student relationship”, “Follow up on student affairs”. Conclusion: Based on results, holding workshops to learn about the duties of a professor of educational advisor and the techniques of counselling, and to pay attention to student demands such as the right to choose, can be effective in improving students' satisfaction and solving their problems.

Formal Verification for Task Description Languages. A Petri Net Approach

One of the main challenges in verifying robotic systems is its asynchronous interaction with an unstructured environment, observed by imperfect sensors. Autonomous robot systems usually require some language to support task-level control. This paper presents an effective approach to apply formal verification methods for that kind of language. A main contribution of this method is to avoid modeling the robotic system with a specific formalism. The approach translates the task-level control models into a Petri net (PN) based representation. This is used to define new methods to analyze some task properties such as liveness, deadlock-freeness and terminability. The approach has been applied to the Task Description Language (TDL) and it is illustrated by experiments. The final goal is to create new tools within the application development environment to include formal verification as part of the normal software development cycle. The TDL to PN translator uses the Petri Net Markup Language (PNML) as its file format. This format permits interoperability with other Petri net tools that can also be used to analyze the PNs.

Providing Business Continuity Plan after Natural Disasters: a case stusy in the Staff Area of Water and Wastewater Company of Tehran

Introduction: Each economic and non-economic institute is inevitably forced to pay special attention to the post-crisis phase to keep its organizational alive, carry out its missions, and reduce the damages and costs caused by various crises. In this research, we tried to extract the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) after the natural disaster of earthquake in the staff area of Water and Wastewater Company of Tehran within the localized framework of BS-25999 British Standards Institution (BSI). Method: In this regard, a questionnaire was used for data collection. Analysis of the questionnaire results was performed by SPSS19 and Expertchoice11 applications. Results: The manager of Water and Wastewater Company of Tehran was found to be the best authority for managing the emergency so that the company can continue its operation and return to normal situation. According to the findings, the hot site was selected as the best location for business continuity of Water and Wastewater Company of Tehran, which could be an alternative site to continue the activities and services after the disaster. Conclusion: A localized post-earthquake Business Continuity Plan (BCP) was suggested in the staff area of Water and Wastewater Company of Tehran. In this site, necessary actions can be perfromed to continue the activities before, during, and after the disaster. Furthermore, organizational chart and task description can be redefined in it.

Research on Factors Affecting Solvers’ Participation Time in Online Crowdsourcing Contests

A crowdsourcing contest is one of the most popular modes of crowdsourcing and is also an important tool for an enterprise to implement open innovation. The solvers’ active participation is one of the major reasons for the success of crowdsourcing contests. Research on solvers’ participation behavior is helpful in understanding the sustainability and incentives of solvers’ participation in the online crowdsourcing platform. So, how to attract more solvers to participate and put in more effort is the focus of researchers. In this regard, previous studies mainly used the submission quantity to measure solvers’ participation behavior and lacked an effective measure on the degree of participation effort expended by a solver. For the first time, we use solvers’ participation time as a dependent variable to measure their effort in a crowdsourcing contest. Thus, we incorporate participation time into the solver’s participation research. With the data from Taskcn.com, we analyze how participation time is affected four key factors including task design, task description, task process, and environment, respectively. We found that, first, for task design, higher task rewards will attract solvers to invest more time in the participation process and the relationship between participation time and task duration is inverted U-shaped. Second, for task description, the length of the task description has a negative impact on participation time and the task description attachment will positively influence the participation time. Third, for the task process, communication and supplementary explanations in a crowdsourcing process positively affect participation time. Fourth, for environmental factors, the task density of the crowdsourcing platform and the market price of all crowdsourcing contests have respectively negative and positive effects on participation time.