Brooklynites are using crowdsourcing to level the playing field with employers

There are two projects going on right now in Brooklyn that have subtle but potentially big implications for workplace power structures.
One is a Google doc called Good for PoC, and the other a Google doc called Making Freelancing Work, Survey #1. Together they represent a new front in the struggle between capital and labor.
The Good for PoC (people of color) doc is the work of Amelie Lamont, Catt Small and Jacky Alcine. It asks people to answer questions such as “How included do you feel at the company?” and “How does this company ensure that people of color are happy?”
“We created this because we realized there was no resource about companies that are good for PoC in the tech industry to work at,” the doc states. “It’s important for any PoC to feel safe and that they’ll be afforded the same opportunities as non-PoC, no matter what their role.”
https://twitter.com/cattsmall/status/723183521263546368
The freelance writing doc is by Study Hall, a coworking space for freelance journalists headed by bot enthusiast and freelance writer Kyle Chayka. The doc asks questions about the most and least participants have been paid for work and where they like writing best and why.
“These will help Study Hall write a report that encourages the establishment of baseline standards of pay, editor work ethic, etc. in the freelance writing industry,” the doc says.

Help us establish baseline standards in the freelancing writing industry. All answers will remain anonymous. https://t.co/nrgWy9QJ6O

— Study Hall (@studyhallxyz) April 25, 2016

Both of these projects aim to undercut one of capital’s primary advantages in the labor market, which is information asymmetry.
If you’re a person of color and a company tells you they’re diverse and inclusive for everyone, you have no way of knowing if it’s true or if things are better or worse elsewhere. Even talking to friends, the best one can often do is anecdotal. But information from the crowd can start to put together a cohesive idea of which places actually are comfortable for people of color to work for and which aren’t. This would give people of color leverage in their job search, and, one would think, would ultimately make employers more responsive to these feelings if they would like to remain competitive.
Similarly with freelance writing, workers can feel like islands in an ocean of content. It’s damn near impossible to know if you’re getting paid an industry standard when you pitch a story. The publications, on the other hand, know how many freelancers they have, how much they are paying them and how productive they are. More transparency in the writing market would, one would think, lead to writers pitching more to publications that pay more. These publications would then have a content advantage over their competitors, who would be forced to increase their compensation, or face having an inferior product.
That’s how it works on paper, at least. We’ll keep an eye on both of these projects.