Macrotasking

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Macrotasking is a type of crowdsourcing that is distinct from microtasking. Macrotasks typically have the following characteristics:

• they can be done independently
• they take a fixed amount of time
• they require special skills

Microtasking projects can also be small pieces of a much larger whole, which workers never see, while macrotasks could be part of a large, visible project where workers pitch in wherever they have the required skills.{{cite book|last=Grier|first=David Allan|title=Crowdsourcing for Dummies|year=2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|page=103}}[http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing/crowd-leaders/841-crowd-leader-neil-perry-from-the-front-lines-of-crowdconf-a-look-at-the-promise-of-macro-tasking Crowd Leader: Neil Perry - A Look at the Promise of Macrotasking - Daily Crowdsource][http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing/crowd-leaders/657-david-alan-grier-preparing-a-good-crowdsourcing-taxonomy Crowd Leader: David Alan Grier - Preparing A Good Crowdsourcing Taxonomy - Daily Crowdsource][http://dailycrowdsource.com/crowdsourcing/infographics/viewdownload/1-infographics/11-umbrella-of-crowdsourcing Download the top crowdsourcing infographics – Infographics – Umbrella of Crowdsourcing]

A macrotask might be the creation of an analytical paper or a video, or the pursuit of a contest like the Netflix Prize, while a microtask could include the editing of a document for grammar or transcription of a video.

A number of sites connect people with freelancers who can fulfill macrotasks, like Fiverr, Upwork (ex Elance and oDesk) . Companies like Sparked and Radmatter have commercial products which can be used for macrotasking.

The Department of State has a crowd-work platform called the [http://vsfs.sparked.com/ Virtual Student Foreign Service] where employees can post macro and micro tasks for student interns to accomplish.