The paper presents a year‑long ethnographic study of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) workers to understand why online collective action often fails, and introduces Dynamo, a purpose‑built platform that enables Turkers to form "publics" and mobilize around shared issues. The authors identify two central failure modes—stalling (loss of momentum) and friction (conflict and criticism)—that threaten any public that attempts to act. Dynamo is designed around three core affordances: (1) trust and privacy through pseudonymous accounts and a qualification‑based registration process; (2) mechanisms for assembling a public via short, up‑voted idea pitches that graduate to campaigns; and (3) mobilization tools such as threaded discussion, a MediaWiki, action buttons, and visibility of participant contributions. Deployment data show 470 registered Turkers, 22 ideas, and two major campaigns (ethical guidelines for requesters and a letter‑writing campaign to Jeff Bezos). The paper details four structured labor strategies the design team employed to counter stalling and friction: setting deadlines for debates, an "act‑and‑undo" approach that allows provisional actions with the option to revert, producing hope by showcasing tangible successes, and reflecting‑and‑proposing to re‑frame conflicts into concrete proposals. These interventions required the team to act as trusted actors, performing emotional, cognitive, and coordination labor that could not be automated. The authors frame these groups as "tactical publics"—collectives that move beyond deliberation to concrete action—and argue that supporting such publics demands recognition of the human infrastructure and labor that underpins them. The work contributes design insights for HCI researchers interested in computer‑supported collective action, especially in precarious online labor contexts.
Topics
Dynamo Platform: Trust‑Centred Infrastructure for Turker Collectives
Design of Dynamo’s privacy‑preserving registration, pseudonymous screen names, and qualification‑based entry, plus core features (idea pitching, campaign graduation, discussion threads, MediaWiki, action buttons, contributor visibility).
Stalling vs. Friction: Twin Failure Modes of Tactical Publics
Conceptual framing of *stalling* (loss of momentum when activity drops) and *friction* (conflict, criticism, and negative emotion) as the primary obstacles to collective action among Turkers.
Ethnographic Methodology: Year‑Long Immersion in Turker Communities
Participant‑observation across forums, IRC, email, and AMT surveys; recruitment of 100+ workers; iterative design feedback loops; positioning the authors as insider‑researchers with dual roles as requesters and workers.
Case Study 1 – Ethical Guidelines Campaign
Co‑creation of a 23‑page ethics guideline for requesters, the process of drafting, consensus‑building, deadline setting, and eventual adoption by 216 signatories (171 Turkers, 45 researchers).
Case Study 2 – Letter‑Writing Campaign to Jeff Bezos
Mobilization of Turkers to humanize their work, collection of 21 public letters, media coverage, fundraising, and the role of external journalists in reviving momentum.
Structured Labor Strategies: Deadlines, Act‑and‑Undo, Hope, Reflect‑and‑Propose
Four concrete interventions the design team used to counter stalling and friction: (1) imposing discussion deadlines; (2) taking provisional actions with reversible edits; (3) showcasing achievable successes to generate hope; (4) reflecting back criticisms and offering concrete proposals.
Tactical Publics: From Deliberation to Action
Definition of "tactical publics" as groups that move beyond discourse to concrete collective action, and the argument that their success hinges on human‑infrastructure labor rather than pure software automation.