- "They have developed a cheaper, faster, and better way to make noise pollution maps. Their idea is to crowdsource the data from smartphones that record sound levels as their owners wander the streets."
crowdsource
verb compounding
To obtain information by aggregating inputs, which are often minute in individual size relative to the overall effort, from a large array of individual participants. Examples of crowdsourcing include using Twitter hashtags to gather responses to a particular idea, or posing a question to a broad Internet-wide audience on Quora or Yahoo Answers. Crowdsourcing is also a wordplay on "outsourcing," the practice of exporting certain types of labor abroad, with the understanding that crowdsourcing delegates a task or process to a social collective of participants in large numbers.
Etymology : Compound of the terms "crowd" (noun), itself derived from the Old English term "crudan" meaning "to press" and "source" (verb), a zero-derivation from the noun form meaning an origin or beginning.
Source : Rajib Rana, "Noise Pollution Maps Crowdsourced from Smartphone Data." 22 October 2013. Accessed 24 November 2013.
Last modified: 25 November 2013