crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is basically connecting a group of personal devices to perform a specific task. Coined by Jeff Howe of Wired magazine, "crowdsourcing" refers to the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined large group of people in the form of an "open call."

This term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals.

Historical perspective: In 2012, the Finnish government enabled something called a “citizens’ initiative”, through which registered voters can come up with new laws and if they can get 50,000 of their fellow citizens to back them up within six months, then the Eduskunta (the Finnish parliament) is forced to vote on the proposal. Known as the Citizens’ Initiative Act, Finland used crowdsourcing to come up with ideas for new legislation.