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"Livemocha is a social network service that supports language learning through audio-visual lessons and peer tutoring tools. Launched in September 2007, the platform has over 5 million registered members from over 200 countries. Lessons are provided for 36 different languages. While the standard lessons are freely accessible for registered users, the platform also offers "premium content" for a fee. Livemocha is more than just "Rosetta Stone on the Web." A unique selling point of the educational Web community is its collaborative approach to language learning: Members of the Livemocha community do not only learn a foreign language, they also tutor other community members in their native language. Users are encouraged to form learning tandems and offer feedback on their partner's speaking or writing exercises. The Livemocha platform supports this peer learning practice through comment features, voice recording and social awareness tools. For ETC Journal, I interviewed Clint Schmidt, Livemocha's Vice President of Marketing and Products. Clint has an impressive success record of developing marketing and product functions for a variety of high-growth Internet companies, including Half.com, eBay and ZoomIn.com, India's leading photo sharing and printing site. Clint holds a BSE in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania."

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly By Florian [Schmidt] On October 8, 2013 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Why Crowdsourcing Needs Ethics Abstract This position paper for the workshop CrowdWork 2013 discusses some of the ethical implications of crowdsourcing in general and of contest-based crowd design in particular, especially in regard to the question of fair payment. The paper establishes four different categories of crowdsourcing with separate ethical challenges and argues for the crowd work industry to develop a code of ethics from within, in order to counter the exploitation and abuse that it often enables."