labor
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Crowdsourcing startup Microtask gets gamers to do some real work
A crowdsourcing startup, Microtask , is ripping crowdsourced labor into even smaller pieces. Microtask’s automated platform splits dull, repetitive tasks into tiny pieces and distributes them over the Internet. The company announced that it’s pulled in over 25,000 volunteers to help on it’s first major project to date, Digitalkoot (Finnish for Digital Volunteers — Microtask is based in Finland). The volunteers are helping to digitize the archives of the National Library of Finland by playing online games — helping moles to build bridges to be exact. Volunteers from around the world have completed over 2 million individual tasks, totaling 100,000 minutes, or 1,700 hours of work in just one month.