

Ask HN: Any ideas for a better term than "Crowd Sourced"? - dpnewman

I can't stand the sound of the term 'crowd sourcing', however the meaning that we all seem to grok is very useful and important.<p>'Crowd sourcing' sounds very technical and cold. Crowd... negative connotation... Sourcing... very robotic.<p>Just wondering if anyone has come across any other phrase that can evoke a similar concept with a more fluid and human feel?
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spooneybarger
what is the negative connotation with crowd? if it was herd sourcing i could
see the negative connotation- with crowd not so much except when use along the
lines of "i don't follow the crowd". still that use of crowd is spot on for
what crowd sourcing is- following the crowd.

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dpnewman
i think a crowd ...as in crowded. busy, jammed, confining.

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ljf
I also hate UGC as a term - user generated content - again sounds very
robotic, not fun or engaging...

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mishmash
Collective, mass sourced?

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maxdemarzi
Community Generated?

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dpnewman
I like this only that it does not somehow capture the aspects of 'crowd
sourced' that suggest that certain content will rise to a more visible status
based on the activities of the community.

So "community sourced" might be a definite step in the right direction. Still
wouldn't mind replacing the sourced part ... if possible.

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Mz
The Wikipedia article on crowdsourcing suggests both "community-based design"
and "open call". You might consider perusing the rest of it for other ideas.

Excerpt:

 _Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an
employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd),
through an open call.

For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out
a design task (also known as community-based design[1] and distributed
participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see
human-based computation), or help capture, systematize or analyze large
amounts of data (see also citizen science)._

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing>

