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

3 points by dpnewman ↗ HN
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.

'Crowd sourcing' sounds very technical and cold. Crowd... negative connotation... Sourcing... very robotic.

Just wondering if anyone has come across any other phrase that can evoke a similar concept with a more fluid and human feel?

7 comments

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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.
dpnewman
i think a crowd ...as in crowded. busy, jammed, confining.
maxdemarzi
Community Generated?
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.

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