Startup oDesk was voted as a TechCrunch50’s demopit winner thanks to the launch of a new iPhone application that allows project administrators to monitor the work stream of their team members while they’re on the go. Today, oDesk’s free app is available on the App Store.
The stream features photos of your team’s workplace, keystroke events, and lets you know when your workers are checking in and out. You can also see each team member’s latest work memo, local time, and billing status for work.
oDesk has been around for a while, offering a “marketplace for talent” that makes it easy to hire workers remotely. The company currently has over 340,000 providers, with 12,200+ jobs that are open. oDesk has also launched an API Center to encourage developers to create custom workspaces around oDesk tools. The API allows for users to log-in from outside of oDesk’s applications, the ability to search oDesk’s provider data and profiles, and lets users retrieve snapshots of worker activities.
oDesk is backed by Benchmark Capital and has raised $29 million, most recently a $15 million round last year.
The oDesk API is implemented using a REST web service interface that is available to developers looking to build oDesk functionality and content into custom applications. Aiming to build a cohesive and community-based approach to customizing oDesk tools, the oDesk API shares a common token authentication system that allows seamless access between products and services. Visit the oDesk API Center at: http://developers.odesk.com/
Now they need an employee version that hits their keyboard for them while they’re on the beach.
Would my boss know when I’m posting on http://www.latestfilings.net instead of working?
Splendid, finally an app for PHBes …
the ultimate capitalist app!
yeah why not reduce the employees to a bunch of statistics and monitor their every keystroke then we can evaluate them accurately and that is good for business.
Just curious… what kind of company is the one in the screenshot? Looks like it could be based out of the Netherlands or the Tenderloin in San Francisco. Just sayin’.
If that’s the future I think I don’t like it..
too bad. it is here right now. You are monitored, no way around and no bitching about it.
that cool indeed, we use Odesk for lots of small projects and have always found the site a bit cumbersome. just to ckeck in on the team and work is pretty cool. downloading now.
Good workers don’t need monitoring.
True they need a project manager
This whole digital micromanagement of the modern worker is kind of odd, especially when more people are becoming self employed and want to manage their own time.
I see the benefits when dealing with remote workers and jobs, but really, If I have to watch your every move, I will just hire a local who can come to my office. And seriously, what kind of stats do you need at the beach that you can’t get after? If the the worker misses the deadlines, or don’t do a good job, then replace them. But if you have to monitor them for some reason, then you probably shouldn’t be at the beach in the first place.
You know, that skull with the hole in it that they found in that German bunker a few decades ago…
That wasn’t Hitler…
You Americans take things just way too far sometimes..
This Odesk system has a high rate of pissed of customers because each developer does not have a defined project manager.
This iPhone app is not really what is needed to manage projects. What is needed is the ability to manage tasks defined and managed by a project manager. Interaction with developers is the wrong solution. It seems that a higher rate per hour should be defined as a world standard so that a project manager and a developer can be paid. The developer should not be doing blueprinting, project management and coding. If we split the difference it seems like roughly $35 per hour is the appropriate rate. Office, Utilities, Developer, Project Manager, Admin can be split to a $35 fee per hour and the end result is the customer gets a better experience and a successful project.
Odesk is cool for some jobs but seems a hybrid solution should be designed.
Hehehe coming soon
Didn’t they upgrade this from their previous app that strapped little children to industrial age machines and beat them when they weren’t churning out enough product?