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
Online crowdsourcing strategies that induce masses of people to solve a task, such as locating far-flung items or alleviating world hunger, work best when financial incentives impel participants to enlist friends and acquaintances in the effort, a new study concludes.— Bruce Bower These sites take advantage of the phenomenon known as crowdsourcing, or turning to the online masses for free or low-cost submissions.— Katie Hafner
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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Time Traveler for crowdsourcing
The first known use of crowdsourcing was in 2006
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