crowdsourcing

noun

crowd·​sourc·​ing ˈkrau̇d-ˌsȯr-siŋ 

: 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

crowdsource transitive verb

crowdsourced; crowdsourcing

But many people don't know the story behind Legos—how the company, on the verge of collapse, crowdsourced its future by polling its most hardcore fans, or how the little blocks have exploded to become a major force in education …

—Smithsonian

Examples of crowdsourcing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

However, the crowdsourcing approach proved wildly successful. —Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 25 Apr. 2024

Related: How hospitals and health systems can help patients avoid medical debt But just as new research suggests that medical crowdsourcing is too far from the source of the problem to create real change, medical debt relief may also be an excessively downstream strategy. —Katherine Hempstead, STAT, 7 June 2024

During Retton’s interview Wednesday in her Texas home with a sympathetic correspondent from Entertainment Tonight, the Olympic gymnast hit back at those who questioned why her four daughters needed to open the crowdsourcing fund. —Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 23 May 2024

In a candid live Instagram post, Brad Cooper, aka Coop, talked with visible emotion about how business slowed during the pandemic and didn’t recover — due to factors including rising gas and food prices — which led to a reliance on loans and a recent crowdsourcing campaign. —Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

crowd entry 2 + outsourcing, gerund of outsource

First Known Use

2006, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

crowdsourcing

noun

crowd·​sourc·​ing

ˈkrau̇d-ˌsȯr-siŋ

: the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by seeking contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community