According to Wikipedia:

“Crowdsourcing” is a neologism for a business model that depends on work being done outside the traditional company walls: while outsourcing is typically performed by lower paid professionals, crowdsourcing relies on a combination of volunteers and low-paid amateurs who use their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D.

A related term is Louis von Ahn’s concept of “human computation“, which is basically about getting people to perform tasks that computers cannot do yet, such as labelling images accurately (see also this Google Labs video where he discusses these concepts).

For a great, current example of “crowdsourcing” check out the new Wired collaboration with NewAssignment.Net, and whoever wishes to participate in what they’ve called Assignment Zero. If that sounds confusing, read this. Sounds fascinating! Definitely one to watch.

See also: Commons-based peer production, “a term coined by Yale’s Law professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated (usually with the aid of the internet) into large, meaningful projects, mostly without traditional hierarchical organization or financial compensation.”

See also: Crowd Clout, defined by Trend Watching as �??Online grouping of citizens/consumers for a specific cause, be it political, civic or commercial, aimed at everything from bringing down politicians to forcing suppliers to fork over discounts.�?�