crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is when the general public or other large group collaboratively create a large data set. This may be done as an exlicit goal of the project, for example Wikipedia editors, or BBC Spring Watch, which asks viewers to post their first sightings of wildlife in the spring. It can also occur implicitly as part of other activities, for example in the iSpot nature application people post photos or descriptions of wildlife sightings which other people answre; over time this collectively builds a large knowledge base for the users to consult. Crowdsourcing is related to human computation, but the connotations of the latter treat people more like cogs in a machine whereas crowdsourcing usually suggests a level of personal interest.