Microtask.com Successfully Crowdsources Business Processes
‘Crowd labour’ is the latest phrase to join the ever-growing vocabulary of our connected world thanks to microtask.com. The Finnish start up, founded by four serial entrepreneurs with lengthy backgrounds in software and business, aims to make every simple process performed by a large business outsource-able.
Using a combination of computerized text recognition and crowdsourced human intelligence Microtask’s proprietary software allows businesses to cut costs and be more efficient by digitizing their documents. By splitting large amounts of scanned documents into tiny pieces and spreading the work load across sophisticated optical symbol recognition software and hundreds of pre-screened human imputers worldwide who turn the documents into computer readable formats by typing them up or formatting them using pre-existing and ubiquitous office software packages. This cuts down the turnaround time and repetitiveness of necessary but menial tasks by giving little bits to lots of people.
Using the same theory that is behind crowdfunding has paid off for Microtask, which now has offices worldwide and has overseen the completion of over 9 Million microtasks since its foundation in 2009.
The possibilities are endless for CEO Ville Miettinen. In a recent interview with Crowdsourcingblog.de he mentioned future plans to embed microtasks into pre-existing pools of digital laborers by putting them on websites and in games. The instant self-verification of the proprietary software at the heart of the business allows the company to distribute the tasks widely and not have to worry about many of the risks inherent in anonymous dealings over the internet.
After only two years Microtask.com has proven itself to be a viable platform for the modernization of business. The company aims to spread its wings yet wider in the years to come.