CrowdFlower, a leader in crowdsourcing microtasks, has created a new way to moderate images: RTFM (Real Time Foto Moderator). While it’s not quite the normal acronym that is associated with these letters (Read The F*ing Manual) it’s still rather amusing. RTFM is a crowdsourced photo moderation service provided by CrowdFlower.
The way it works is simple:
Send in your images
1. Send CrowdFlower the URL of an image via an HTTP request to their API.
Images go out to the crowd
2. RTFM sends images to CrowdFlower’s online global labor pool of more than 3.5 million workers. Moderators use an Image Wall interface that lets them efficiently screen images at scale.
Get results back
3. RTFM sends back results via web hook with an average turnaround time under 15 minutes. Each result is calculated based on the input of multiple trusted moderators.
RTFM is the first of many crowdsourcing web apps to come from CrowdFlower, a SF-based tech company founded in 2008. Since then, CrowdFlower has moderated close to 50 million photos.
Moderating photos, especially those from big social networks or sites, takes time and lots of resources. CrowdFlower recognized an opportunity to create a more efficient way to moderate these images by leveraging the crowd, and specifically targeted small app developers, community managers and/or anyone with a user base and a photo upload feature. The result was faster, more accurate and cost effective solutions.
RTFM pricing is structured on a per-image basis, however the first 500 images are FREE! Depending on which service plan you sign up for, images cost between $0.008-$0.02 per image.
Some of CrowdFlower’s clients, use RTFM to moderate 100% of photo content on their site, while others simply use it to get through the “night shift’ when their internal moderation employees go home. Some companies use it for a “first pass” scenario: anything that gets flagged on their site goes through RTFM. Then the real employees from company “X” review problematic images and decide on a course of action. This allows companies to minimize delays for photo moderation while keeping user experience positive.
And now a word from our sponsor:
Do you use crowdsourcing? Want to learn more about it? Wonder if it can help your business?
Then CrowdConf 2012 is a must attend conference for you.
CrowdConf 2012 will held on Tuesday, October 23 at Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA. Tickets are now available at www.CrowdConf12.eventbrite.com
Learn how businesses use crowdsourcing to make Big Data bite-sized, fund and launch ideas, complete tasks big and small, design content and marketing materials that get noticed, and get ahead of the competition.
Editors Note: For being a SFNT loyalist we want to give you a 25% discount to CrowdConf 2012 by using this code: FRIENDS25
Also, if you want to get in for free, you’ll have to make an extra effort on sharing this blog post in your social networks and don’t forget to mention SFNT, CrowdFlower and of course CrowdConf. The most creative tweets, posts, etc., get the free goodies. Make sure to tweet us (@SFNEWTECH), me (@JMOTA3), Â and CrowdFlower (@CrowdFlower) so we can keep track of the most creative posts.