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Publication: City; Date: Nov 20, 2011; Section: Money & Real Estate; Page: G1

Technology that pays

Gigwalk app allows iPhone users to earn a little money by doing tasks for companies
By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz Tribune reporter

On a damp fall afternoon, Humberto Salgado sidled up to the bar at Piece, a pizza brewpub in Chicagos Wicker Park, and asked the bartender if he could take photos of the restaurants interior to help the search engine Bing update its maps. Go for it, the bartender said after checking with the manager. Wait! She grabbed a rag and wiped the counter. OK, go ahead. Salgado pulled out his iPhone, pulled up the Photosynth application and stood in the middle of the restaurant, turning slowly in a tight 360-degree circle as he snapped photos from the ceiling to the floor. While Photosynth stitched the photos together to create a panoramic video of the place, Salgado took close-up photos of the liquor shelf and the TVs, then went outside and took photos of the restaurants exterior, first from the sidewalk and then from across the street. Thats it, he shrugged as he joined his wife, Jaunice, who had been waiting by the door with their 3-month-old baby, Leland, swaddled to her chest in a Moby wrap, and their 22-month-old toddler, Luca, in a stroller. With $4 earned in less than 10 minutes, Salgado looked to his iPhone for his next task, consulting a map cluttered with dozens of red pins pointing to jobs next door, across the street, around the corner and down the block. Salgado, 26, is a father, a husband, a traveling phlebotomist, a bassist in a band and, every chance he gets, a Gigwalker. Gigwalk, a free app for iPhone and coming for Android, pays users small fees to perform tasks for companies that need local eyes and ears on the ground. Microsoft Corp.s Bing, for example, enlists Gigwalkers to photograph businesses for map listings. Navigation service TomTom uses Gigwalkers to verify turn restrictions or bridge heights. Several consumer packaged-goods companies send Gigwalkers to retailers to ensure their products are being displayed properly. MenuPages, an online restaurant directory with more than 33,000 menus and restaurant profiles in eight markets, uses Gigwalkers to photograph menus and get up-to-date business information on hard-to-contact restaurants, said Tom Bohan, director of MenuPages. Previously, MenuPages would pay an hourly rate to one or two people to visit a list of restaurants scattered around a city, but it was difficult to control what the hires were doing, and it would take a long time for the information to come through, Bohan said. With Gigwalk, hundreds of people are paid per task to visit restaurants they happen to be near and upload the information immediately. Doing it through Gigwalk is slightly more expensive, Bohan said, but they are able to accomplish in one month what previously took three. For Gigwalkers, the mini-jobs offer extra cash in a bleak economic climate. Most gigs pay as little as $4, but as Gigwalkers become more experienced, they accumulate street cred that enables them to access more challenging jobs, such as photographing hotels or testing mobile apps, that pay up to $95 a pop. Gigwalk, launched in May, is active in Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Bos-ton, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle, though the company is looking to expand, said Ariel Seidman, who co-founded the company with fellow former Yahoo employees Matt Crampton and David Watanabe. Ultimately wed like to see a person in Brazil or a person in Turkey earning 25 to 30 percent of their income off of Gigwalk, said Seidman, who is based in Silicon Valley. We want it to be a meaningful part of your income, where you really care about your reputation. Some 100,000 people have signed on as Gigwalkers, most aged 18 to 40, Seidman said. Many are between jobs or looking to fill income gaps, some are stay-at-home moms and dads, while others are college students seeking extra cash for books and entertainment, he said.
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Salgado, who started Gigwalking in August, hoped to supplement his income after the down economy thinned business at his home health agency, for which he drives to patients houses to collect blood samples, and to cover some expenses of his newborn. Six weeks into it, Salgado had been paid $775 for 130 gigs, and was awaiting payment on almost 100 more gigs under review. Its become an addiction, said Salgado, who through mid-November accumulated an impressive 5,601 street cred points. Salgado tries to Gigwalk every day, checking the app when visiting patients in the morning to see if theres a gig in their neighborhood that he can squeeze in. During one afternoon, he was able to knock off 33 gigs at a mall, making $132 in three hours. Salgado, who spends his evenings practicing with his band, The Lifeline, enjoys Gigwalking with his wife and kids, who come in handy in some businesses he fears wont grant permission, because they make his photo-taking less conspicuous. He barely has time to spend at home, so this is one of the only times we can spend together as a family, said Jaunice Salgado, 26, an aesthetician at Asha Salon and Spa in Wicker Park. It hasnt been all smooth sailing for some. On a community forum maintained by Gigwalk to enable walkers to trade advice, users complain about Photosynth crashing, long upload times and not getting paid enough to go to dangerous areas. They also share war stories: One woman tells how she was chased out of Chanel in New York, Salgado said. One of the biggest complaints has been from veterans who dont believe their street cred has garnered promised higher-paying gigs, leaving them competing with the newbies for the same minor ones. Of the 10,000 to 20,000 available gigs per week across all eight metro areas, about 25 to 100 pay more than $50, Seidman said, but they get snapped up in a day or two, so people not on the app constantly may not see them. Seidman acknowledged the company needs to do a better job communicating the good gigs to worthy walkers. Meantime, it has rolled out a feature called Endorsements, by which Gigwalkers can get references to attest to a particular skill, such as photography or writing, that will give them priority when a relevant lucrative gig comes along. Marc Ramos, a San Francisco photographer who has completed several gigs that required an SLR camera, said his goal is to be a good member of the Gigwalk community so that hes first at the plate when the advanced gigs come in (he said he earned $3,000 from his first 600 gigs). He has launched a series of instructional videos to teach new walkers the ins and outs of the technology and attends social gatherings to meet other Gigwalkers. Sometimes theyll meet for lunch in a new neighborhood, do some gigs, then go out to dinner. And the awkwardness, or potential bloody battle, when multiple Gigwalkers show up for the same gig? Ramos, 38, said it rarely happens. While you can see gigs throughout the city, you have to be within a half mile to reserve it. Its like Mortal Gig Kombat, Ramos said. Whoever can press the button first gets the gig. aelejalderuiz@tribune.com

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Humberto Salgado, above, with his wife, Jaunice, and children, gets a Gigwalk assignment to photograph Cafeneo in Chicago.

Work opportunities show up as red pins on the Gigwalk app for iPhones, left. SHAUNA BITTLE/ PHOTOS FOR THE TRIBUNE

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