Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a methodology that involves obtaining ideas, services, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, typically an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. It leverages the collective intelligence and diverse skills of the crowd to solve problems, generate data, or complete tasks efficiently and cost-effectively. This approach is widely used in areas like data annotation, software testing, idea generation, and content creation.
Developers should learn and use crowdsourcing when they need to scale tasks that are difficult to automate or require human judgment, such as labeling datasets for machine learning, beta testing applications, or gathering user feedback on prototypes. It is particularly valuable in agile development environments where rapid iteration and diverse input can accelerate innovation and improve product quality, making it a key skill for roles in AI, UX design, and open-source projects.