Article on multiagent-based simulation of microtask crowdsourcing platforms was accepted in the 16th CONTECSI

CEST researchers’ paper Multiagent-Based Simulation of a Microtask Crowdsourcing Platform Using NetLogo was accepted at the 16th International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management (CONTECSI) to be held from May 29/31, 2019, in the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Universidade de São Paulo (FEA-USP).

Researchers Eduardo Bertassi, Marcel Jacques Simonette and Edison Spina conducted a study in which the main objective is to demonstrate that the basic principles governing the execution of tasks in a microtask crowdsourcing platform could be evaluated using a multiagent-based simulation tool that did not require advanced programming knowledge.

According to researcher Eduardo Bertassi, one of the existing problems when creating and implementing a crowdsourcing platform is to predict how the platform will be used by a multitude of users scattered over the internet that have different motivations and abilities. “When designing a crowdsourcing platform, it is very difficult to know at design time how users that are so distinct from each other will interact with tasks that require different levels of knowledge and that have different reward values. The use of multiagent-based simulations is a good way for analyzing the complex behavior that can emerge in environments such as this. The goal is not to simulate a complex microtask crowdsourcing environment with perfection, but to understand what kinds of behavior can emerge when changing, for example, the tasks difficulty or remuneration values, among other possibilities”.

The researcher expects that the model, its implementation, and the experiments  encourage entrepreneurs and developers to employ multiagent-based simulations during the design phase of such platforms because this type of tool helps to predict certain dynamic behaviors before the platforms could get into production. “Adjusting or fixing the implementation of such platforms in the design phase is less costly than when the platforms are in the production environment”, the researcher completes.

The article will soon be available on CONTECSI´s page and CEST´s publication page.