Illustrations by Aaron Fernandez
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DIY Apps

Editorial piece for Wired

 

 

When Workers Control the Code

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“YOU KNOW WHAT I hate? Rating drivers on Lyft. Three stars? Five stars? I know Lyft wants to feed the ravenous maw of its machine intelligence, but I worry that drivers will get punished for low ratings. In the app-dominated gig economy, platforms already hoover up as much as 30 percent of the fees, and workers barely eke out a living. So when Lyft asks me to rank drivers, I lie—I give everyone five stars. It makes me think: Why doesn't someone try to run an on-demand labor app that doesn't seem to exploit its workers?”

for WIRED

04.22.2019

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