Startup enlists humans to solve knotty igB Data problems

When it comes to Big Data, machines can only do so much. At least that's what startup Spare5 Inc. is betting with the launch of what it calls an "Intelligent Crowdsourcing Platform" that leverages a community of specialists to process Big Data tasks that require a human touch. Crowdsourcing services today run the gamut from the mundane (Amazon.com's Spare5 sits somewhere in the middle, but its special sauce is a machine learning algorithm that rates the skills and preferences of crowd members. The platform is useful for "pretty much anything that involves getting structured data out of unstructured data," said Matt Bencke, founder and CEO.