Towards a Taxonomy of Virtual Work

Abstract

Online spaces have led to novel forms of activity. These include real-money trading in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, on-line content production, working through crowdsourcing Internet marketplaces, online gambling, playing human-based computation games, or just browsing on the Internet, sharing files, and connecting with friends. A growing number of scholars refer to them as new labour activities, virtual work, digital labour or describe them as new sources of value creation for capital. Along with all these developments, new terms describing the virtual workforce are also emerging - Gold Farmer, Prosumer, Turker or Microworker are only a few examples. Despite these new terms and categories, there is a lack of conceptual framework and understanding of what constitutes virtual work in more general terms. There is no clear classification of this type of work and no clear separation from the work that takes place in the ´real world´. This paper explores the obstacles that are blocking the way for building a classification and moving towards a definition and taxonomy