crowdsourcing

Coined by magazine writer Jeff Howe in 2006.[1] From crowd +‎ sourcing, by analogy with outsourcing.

crowdsourcing (countable and uncountable, plural crowdsourcings)

1. The delegation of a task to a large diffuse group in order to introduce new or more developed skill sets and improve efficiency. There is usually no substantial monetary compensation involved.

   Synonym: open outsourcing

   • June 2006, Jeff Howe, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”, in Wired Magazine‎:

     P&G is one of InnoCentive’s earliest and best customers, but the company works with other crowdsourcing networks as well.

   • January 2007, Jessi Hempel, “Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowd”, in Business Week:

     While not a new phenomenon, crowdsourcing is really growing as a business trend.

   • July 2007, Twisted, comp.lang.java.programmer:

     "Costs can be reduced by crowdsourcing more content."

• crowdworker

crowdsourcing

1. present participle of crowdsource