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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. [1] [2] [3] [4]
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 Virtual Student Foreign Service Archived 2013-04-21 at the Wayback Machine where employees can post macro and micro tasks for student interns to accomplish.