crowdsourcing

noun crowd·sourc·ing \ ˈkrau̇d-ˌsȯr-siŋ \

Definition of crowdsourcing

:the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers

Recent Examples of crowdsourcing from the Web

The crowdsourcing effort also ensnared two Centerville men.

— keith bierygolick, Cincinnati.com, "Social media leads from Charlottesville attack to Mason," 14 Aug. 2017
Fans of Waze can now access the popular crowdsourcing map owned by Google through their vehicle's in-car display or touchscreens.

— kirsten korosec, Fortune, "Companies Are Paying Facebook to Promote Positive Press," 26 July 2017
The cases were filed in 10 separate complaints to food-poisoning crowdsourcing site iwaspoisoned.com.

— andrea park, Teen Vogue, "Chipotle Shuts Down a Virginia Location Due to Norovirus Outbreak," 18 July 2017
The crowdsourcing project is part of a larger effort to gather more information on how giraffes live in the wild.

— karla peterson, sandiegouniontribune.com, "How you can lift a finger to help the San Diego Zoo save giraffes," 7 July 2017
Another app, called MiFlight, tries to predict wait times through crowdsourcing and offers airport maps (gomiflight.com). ‘

— lucas peterson, The Seattle Times, "Next-level tricks for surviving airport security," 29 June 2017
The goal: to document and verify hate crimes and non-criminal incidents motivated by bias across the United States through a combination of traditional reporting and crowdsourcing leads.

— melissa lewis, OregonLive.com, "Help us document hate crimes in Oregon," 13 June 2017
Artists have used websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe to raise money for projects since the inception of digital crowdsourcing.

— sophie haigney, New York Times, "Los Angeles Museum Starts a Kickstarter Campaign for a Traveling Egg-Shaped Gallery," 9 June 2017
Joynt decided the best way to pay for the marker this time would be through crowdsourcing, with a goal of $2,100.

— michelle matthews, AL.com, "Help mark the spot where Joe Cain lived in Mobile," 2 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'crowdsourcing.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.