Many of us will be familiar with the established concept of outsourcing, defined as 'an arrangement in which work is done by people from outside your company …'. This definition might fit an instance of crowdsourcing too, but the essential difference is that, whereas outsourcing usually involves a specific, previously known person or organization (often an expert in a particular field) crowdsourcing refers to a task or problem thrown open to an undefined public (the crowd) – quite literally any Tom, Dick, or Harry who could possibly provide the answer.

我們很多人都已經(jīng)對(duì)“外包”這個(gè)概念比較熟悉，它的意思是“安排本公司以外的人來完成某項(xiàng)工作”。這個(gè)概念在一些特定場(chǎng)合下也適用于crowdsourcing（眾包），不過二者本質(zhì)的區(qū)別在于，外包一般是由某個(gè)指定的、之前已經(jīng)熟識(shí)的人或者組織（通常是某個(gè)領(lǐng)域的專家）來完成，而眾包則是將某個(gè)任務(wù)或問題拋給未知的大眾——可以是張三、李四，或任何一個(gè)可能貢獻(xiàn)答案或解決方法的人。

Fast establishing itself as a legitimate business tool, the perceived benefits of crowdsourcing are obvious – problems can be explored quickly and at comparatively low cost, and businesses can tap a range of talent that may not exist within the confines of a particular organization. It's also useful for marketing purposes because the crowd may include potential customers – asking people for their response to a problem may also be a way to glean information about what they want from a product or service.

在迅速成長為一項(xiàng)合法運(yùn)營工具的同時(shí)，眾包的優(yōu)勢(shì)也是顯而易見的——問題解決得更快，而且花費(fèi)相對(duì)較低，企業(yè)可以開發(fā)出各種各樣的人才，而這些人才是不可能在某個(gè)公司同時(shí)存在的。同時(shí)，眾包對(duì)市場(chǎng)營銷也有幫助，因?yàn)檫@里的“眾”可能就包括潛在的客戶——向人們征詢針對(duì)某個(gè)問題的看法也可能是在征集有關(guān)他們對(duì)產(chǎn)品或服務(wù)的需求信息。

Crowdsourcing is therefore catching on in a variety of contexts. The popular social networking site Facebook, for example, has enhanced its global popularity by crowdsourcing the translation of its many web pages. The ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's recently launched a "Do the world a flavor" campaign, in an attempt to crowdsource inspiration for new varieties. Even President Obama has become an advocate of crowdsourcing, using it for example to source campaign funding prior to his election, and more recently to canvas opinion and galvanize constructive ideas from the public in a web-based enterprise catchily described as White House 2.0. (Source: macmillandictionary.com)

于是，眾包在各個(gè)領(lǐng)域風(fēng)生水起。比如，廣受歡迎的社交網(wǎng)站Facebook通過將其很多網(wǎng)頁的翻譯任務(wù)眾包而提高了在全球的知名度。冰激凌廠商Ben & Jerry's近期還推出了一個(gè)“給世界加點(diǎn)味兒”活動(dòng)，希望通過這樣的眾包方式激發(fā)出新的冰激凌品種。連美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬都是眾包的倡導(dǎo)者，比如，他在大選前向公眾征集競(jìng)選經(jīng)費(fèi)，最近又通過一個(gè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司向公眾征集意見和建設(shè)性想法，這個(gè)公司有個(gè)很吸引人的名字，叫“白宮2.0”。