From Paper Forms To Spreadsheets - Microtask Forms Digitize More Content

By Anna Bessonova, May 13, 2011, 1 Comments

Microtask lives up to its slogan 'we love the work you hate'. Many companies require customers to fill out paper forms, be it an insurance, a job application, a large purchase or a medical form. Typing those forms into a spreadsheet is time-consuming, mundane, dull and takes time away from doing more important things for your company. The pain was well-spotted by Microtask who this week introduced a new service - Microtask Forms - that helps convert paper forms into digital spreadsheets. From the clients' side the service is extremely straightforward: they can email or fax paper forms they need to get typed in and by the end of the next working day they get the forms back as digitized spreadsheets.

The way it works is Microtask's platform extracts the data from the written forms, divides it into tiny parts and distributes those pieces among their global network of microworkers who type them in. The results are sent back to Microtask's platform where they are put together into a completed assignment. Data's security and confidentiality is guaranteed because each microworker is shown only fragments of the form. On top of that, each piece of information is digitized more than once so the results are cross-checked for accuracy.

'Microtask Forms is the first form service with no up-front payments or contract hassles', commented Ville Miettinen, CEO. Three first forms can be submitting as part of the free trial. The rest are charged between $0,36-$0,60 per form depending on the package. No long-term commitment or subscription is required since payments are enabled through a system of credits that can be purchased from Microtask's website.

The service is targeted primarily at the US market so English is the only language it currently supports. Though Microtask promises to add more languages gradually.

Thus, Microtask Forms have all the components for a great product. It solves an acute problem by converting boring and inefficient work into tiny tasks that are carried out by a large number of people through a game-like interface. This way results are achieved faster and more efficiently.

Sounds too good to be true? There is reason to belive that Microtask can deliver on their promises. Earlier this year they introduced Digitalkoot to help The National Library of Finland digitize their archives. Over 25 000 people completed 2 million microtasks in that pilot.